not work with high career men and that they have to behave the way men want them to behave.
I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful
future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig
was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and
another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was
an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldnt quite make out. I saw myself sitting in
the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldnt make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and
every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and,
one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet. Plath, 2013:78
Here we can see how social construction plays a big part in oppressing Esther’s thoughts. The quotation above sounds like sarcasm but at the same time she
does consider all the options. She is packed by other people’s desires mixed with some of her own desires. The choices of life others ‘pressure’ on her, including her
own mother definitely doesn’t make it any easy for her. Considering all those different lives clearly shows the influence of social construction slowly and
successfully absorbing into her head. Her independence and her freedom is still there, the choice of her desired life is in one of those branches, but she still considers what
society thinks is best for her, not what she thinks is best for herself.
4.1.1 Partriarchy vs Feminism
There can be no doubt that our Nation has had a long and unfortunate history of sex discrimination. Traditionally, such
discrimination was rationalized by an attitude of “romantic paternalism” which, in practical effect, put women not on a
pedestal, but in a cage. - Frontiero v. Richardson, 1973
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When we talk about women who are oppressed by men, we also talk about patriarchy, which has existed long ago. Patriarchal ideology is a system that gives
priority for men. For centuries, the universe has been dominated by a patriarchal ideology, which has been defined as a set of beliefs that legitimizes male power and
authority over women. For hundred years, patriarchy prohibited women from having a legal or political identity and the legislation and social attitudes support this way.
…in all columns, books and articles by experts telling women their roles was to seek fulfillment as wives and mothers. Over
and over women heard in voices of tradition and of Freudian sophistication that they could desire no greater destiny than to
glory in their own feminity. Friedan, 1963:15
According to Kate Millet in Prabasmoro’s Kajian Budaya Feminis, legitimacy is made to ensure that the system running in a society is in accordance with the desire of
public authorities themselves. That is, when women are equal members of society to men, rules are created so that the power structure remains in accordance with the
ideology that underlies the entire structure of society itself. That ideology itself, without much debate, is a patriarchal ideology that promotes the interests of men,
prioritizing the masculine values and at the same time ignoring the interests of women and degrading feminine values. This points to low appreciation of work and domestic
roles even to the stage where women share public and economic burden to reach the needs of families. This occurs because of the role of women in the public sector is
considered purely as extra work, while domestic work is a women’s place. They were taught to pity the neurotic, unfeminine, unhappy
women who wanted to be poets or physicists or presidents. They learned that truly feminine women do not want careers,
high education, political rights – the independence and the opportunities that the old-fashioned feminists fought for.
Friedan, 1963:16
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Feminist claims for equality are generally accepted as reasonable principles in western society and they fight for equal status for women of all races, classes,
sexualities and abilities in the 21st century, unfortunately this idea is mostly rejected by the dominant power of men.
In Tong’s Feminist Thoughts, feminist gender Nel Noddings claims that women and men speak different morals, and that our culture gives priority for the masculine
ethics of justice rather than the feminine care ethics 1998:230. Here we can see how the women’s voices are stopped by cultural construction and feminine thoughts.
Automatically, society decides what is more powerful. When women wanted to question inequalities in their own lives they turned to
history to understand the roots of their oppression. It is also to see what they could learn from challenges that they have faced in the past. Feminism in America has
played an important role in the history and culture of the country itself. The whole thing started in the late 1800s when women fought for their rights to be heard and
allowed to vote. Through the next century the desire for women to become more socially equal was the focus of the feminist movement in America.
The beginning of the first wave of Feminism in America began during the late 1800’s which was following the end of the American Civil War.
The wave formally began at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 when 300 men and women rallied to
the cause of equality for women. The goal of this wave was to open up opportunities for women, with a focus on suffrage.
By 1920, American women were finally granted universal suffrage due to a passage that prohibited any citizen being denied the right
to vote based on gender.
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The second wave began in the 1960s nearly as soon as the end of World War II and continued into the 90s. This wave unfolded in the context of the anti-war and
civil rights movements and the growing self-consciousness of a variety of minority groups around the world. During the war, it was proven that women were completely
capable of doing the jobs that men had abandoned when they went to war. Women requested to be freed from the traditional roles of housewife and caregiver. They hope
to gain a higher position in the work force. The third wave of feminism in America took place in the early 1990’s. This
wave did not have a specific goal but instead raised awareness to gain all sorts of equality, such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and social class. This modern
wave of feminism also gives attention towards issues like gender violence, reproductive right, sexual harassments and provides support of all sorts.
4.1.2 American Society During 20
