Preview

A Search for Equality

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
753 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Search for Equality
Anne Roiphe's "Confessions of a Female Chauvinist Sow" first appeared in the magazine New York in 1972. In this essay Roiphe aims to convince her readers that women must put faith in the idea that they are equal to men, not superior. "Women who want equality must be prepared to give it and believe in it . . . ." Personal anecdotes, contrast, and comparison are techniques Roiphe skillfully uses to create a strong, convincing essay.

Roiphe begins her essay with a personal anecdote describing the "horrifying" realization that she married a man exactly like her father. This technique immediately establishes the essay as informal and personal. It is a great way to capture the reader's interest. Also, this particular anecdote is used as background information for the first point Roiphe makes in the following paragraph—that ". . . people . . . have at one time or another been fouled up by their childhood experiences." Another anecdote in the essay explains how Roiphe's mother used to give Roiphe "mad money" before going on dates. "My mother and I knew young men were apt to drink too much . . ." and "mad money was for getting home on your own, no matter what form of insanity your date happened to evidence." Anecdotes such as this are entertaining and tend to lighten the mood of the essay. Also, it is quite easy for readers to relate to personal experience. Another function of anecdotes in this essay is to substantiate and support main ideas. At the end of one paragraph Roiphe states, "The hidden anti-male feelings, a result of the old system, will foul us up if they are allowed to persist." This is directly followed by the anecdote explaining the necessity for "mad money"—that men are untrustworthy, inconsiderate beasts. The anecdote clearly provides evidence and support for the fact that women have anti-male feelings.

Shortly after capturing the reader's interest with the introductory anecdote, Roiphe begins using contrast. The numerous examples of contrast
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Examples Of Address To Congress On Women's Inequality
    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Examples Of Address To Congress On Women's Inequality

    Women’s Inequality Women’s inequality is the “idea or situation that men and women are not equal.” This subject was a major conflict in the past, and while it has evolved, it still remains prominent in today’s society. Many authors express their knowledge of this subject and we can understand their thoughts through their claim. Three examples of these articles are “Address to Congress on Women’s Suffrage” by Carrie Chapman Catt, “Refined Society” by John Young, and Emma Watson’s “HeforShe.” In the informational texts, the authors effectively support their claim with rhetorical appeals. Meanwhile, they also have contrasting methods that impact the effectiveness of these claims.…

    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gender and Murray
    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Gender and Murray

    Before woman had any rights in this country, things were a lot different when it came for a woman to live its life to its fullest. In the essay, On the Equality of the Sexes by Judith Sargent Murray she talks about all of the problems that woman faced in the late 1700 through the 1800. Throughout the essay, Murray compares the woman’s and man’s right on the ability of imagination, reasoning, memories and judgments. One of the things that she strongly believed that all women were surrenders to use their imaginations and couldn’t live their lives.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Identities Contrasted
    • 1311 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Identities Contrasted

    Ancillary Essay 3 (AE3): Identities in Contrast Essay PromptRead both "Shooting Dad" and "On Being a Cripple" in 50 Essays and consider thecontrasts in how they articulate identity. How do both essays configure exclusion andinclusion? In both essays, the authors distinguish their identities from groups. In an essayof 500-750 words, organize an analysis of how the ideological and physical identities inthese two essays converge and diverge. As with AE2, quote from the essays to supportyour thesis, using MLA format (commas & periods inside the closing quotation mark forin-text citations; periods after parenthesis for page citations).A key element of writing a compare & contrast essay is finding the point of convergence.While Cohen has already done some of our work by putting together the two essaysunder the heading of "identity," we also know that at a detailed level there will bedifferences.In a sense, both Vowell and Mairs want their essays to be about those differences.Ironically, they also want their audience to identify with those differences. In effect,writing a comparison & contrast essay is like walking across a rocky riverbed: the morefamiliar you are with the highs and the lows (research), the more quickly you can lead theway across (explicate and argue). But remember that you won't be crossing alone; you'llbe leading, so give us a concise statement of what you think is the best way to the otherside (thesis) and then lead the way.In writing AE3, be sure your essay gives accurate summaries of both essays. Thesesummaries should be brief and should follow your thesis, which itself should appear earlyin the essay. Following the summary should be the paragraphs in which you analyze thespecific contrasts between our ideological and physical identities. You will need todecide whether to organize your essay so it contrasts the two essays in their totality orwhether it contrasts specific points from each essay.…

    • 1311 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Why Women Still Can T Have It All
    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Why Women Still Can T Have It All

    With the rise of role confusion in society, the debates of gender inequality have become more frequent. As a result, people are becoming increasingly more concerned with how to repair the gap that an uncertain amount of time has created between men and women. The complication of finding ways to bridge the gap resides in the inability for majorities of each sex to see passed their biases. In the essay titled “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” former director of policy planning for the U.S. State Department Anne-Marie Slaughter speaks about the difficulty of balancing home and work life from a female’s perspective. In rebuttal of a portion of the claims Slaughter makes, Esquire magazine editor Richard Dorment states a male’s view on the…

    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gender Roles In Sanford's Advice To Women
    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Gender Roles In Sanford's Advice To Women

    During the era of industrialization, women continued to be oppressed by gender-based social roles. These social roles portrayed men as workers that supported the home, while portraying women as caretakers for the needs of their children and husbands at home. Although many women conformed to their assigned roles in society, there were an increasing number of women who refused to be undervalued and fought for the rights of women. Thus, in the opposing viewpoint, Advice to Women: Two Views, one can see the distinct perspectives that women had on their roles in society. In Elizabeth Poole Sanford’s, Women in Her Social and Domestic Character, Sanford promoted the conventional conception that a woman’s proper role in society was to “be conscious…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Feminine Mystique Analysis
    • 1340 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Feminine Mystique Analysis

    Gail Collins argues, “The Feminine Mystique is a very specific cry of rage about the way intelligent, well-educated women were kept out of the mainstream of American professional life and regarded as little more than a set of reproductive organs in heels” (1). At a time when women were at their academic peak with the highest college attendance and graduation rates, one would assume that women would confidently take on more important roles in the workforce, especially following the Rosie the Riveter campaign that empowered female workers during World War II; however, women took on more domestic roles in higher percentages, forgetting the progress in women’s rights their mothers and grandmothers worked so hard to achieve. Louis Menand explains, “When Friedan was writing her book, the issue of gender equality was barely on the public’s radar screen. On the contrary: it was almost taken for granted that the proper goal for intelligent women was marriage” (2). A large contributor to this decision is the false sense of accomplishment women were promised in return for their spousal duties. Critic Catherine Judd explains, “Friedan notes that suburban housewives have been told by the media, by the medical community, and by educators that they…

    • 1340 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Post Modern American Women
    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Post Modern American Women

    Thus, in an attempt to further promote equal opportunity between men and women, a second wave of feminism emerged between 1968 and the 1980’s, which can be best characterized by women’s refusal to acclimate to society’s rigid belief of what an ideal woman should be or act like (Mancia, Class, 12/2). This problem is perfectly illustrated in the Feminine Mystique, written by Betty Friedan, in which Friedan discussed the unhappiness of many young women in the 1950’s and early 1960’s despite many of them being married and having children, living the life a woman is “supposed” to have. Furthermore, Friedan complained of young women who were being taught that “truly feminine women do not want careers, higher education, political rights” (Friedan, p. 271). Instead, they were being taught that it was a woman’s “job” to essentially be a housewife (i.e. stay home, clean the house, make food for her family, take care of the kids, etc...) (Friedan, p. 273). However, Friedan largely opposed this view and believed that it embodied the false prototypical stereotype about women. Rather, Friedan believed that a truly feminine woman would do just the exact opposite and does aim for a career, higher education, and political rights in the same way that a man would (Mancia, Class,…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Feminine Mystique
    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Feminine Mystique

    The treatment of women in the workplace, school and wider society has evolved since the first wave of feminism. But to what extent are women treated as equal to their male counterpart? The persistent gap between the treatment of men and women even after the first wave of feminism provoked a second wave. The catalyst to mainstream feminism in the 1960’s through 1970’s was Betty Friedan’s book,The Feminine Mystique. Women's right activist and writer, Betty Friedan, a leading figure in the Feminist movement. Her book ,The Feminine Mystique, was a major influence in the second wave of Feminism because it voiced what so many women lacked to say; they wanted more. The Feminine Mystique was published in 1963 and over two million copies were sold…

    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Summary of "The Subjection of Women" by Mill
    • 322 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Summary of "The Subjection of Women" by Mill

    The Subjection of Women has both detailed argumentation and passion in Mill's bitter opposition to the social and legal inequalities commonly imposed on women by a Patriarchal culture. Mill presents the practical difficulty of arguing against the opinion men are presumed to be naturally superiority to women. Mill compares, the domination of men over women to the slavery, which is nothing more than the display or physical power.…

    • 322 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Male Dominance In William Faulkner's The Yellow Wallpaper
    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Male Dominance In William Faulkner's The Yellow Wallpaper

    In the past, women have often been victims of unjustness and oppression, being forced to endure numerous hardships that had an impact not only on their physical health, but their psychological health as well. These struggles were particularly visible during the 19th century, when male dominance was a prevailing and ubiquitous aspect of society. Women of this time period had to cope with the drudgery of being under constant control of their male counterparts and not being able to voice their emotions or opinions. As a result, the subject of male preeminence has appeared in multiple pieces of literature that have not only denounced this inequitable condition, but have disclosed its negative side effects as well. The Yellow Wallpaper, written…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Gender Inequality In The Workplace
    • 1229 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Gender Inequality In The Workplace

    It is no secret that for centuries, women have faced years and years of discrimination, inferiority to men, and being viewed as less than human by society. Women have had to fight for their right to vote amongst other legal rights, and for their independence from their husbands. “When American women began to enter the labor force in the nineteenth century, the relatively few jobs open to them were highly segregated by gender” (Spain 1992: 14). The first women’s labor union began to form by the end of the 1930’s. Women’s activism began to increase, leading to a new reform in paid work and the rise in feminism in the midst of a new labor movement (Gregory 2003: 25). By the 1940’s, the transition of the housewife to that of a working woman began to trend. Women began to venture out of the home in search of employment and educational opportunities to help provide for their families, since their…

    • 1229 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Polity Of Women In The 1800s
    • 1488 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Polity Of Women In The 1800s

    Thus, men were scientifically seen as the sex should occupy competitive realm of economics and politics, while women were the spiritual guardians of men’s morality (Kerber 1988). Indeed, the justification for the separate spheres was based around biological essentialism: women and men were thought to have a fundamentally different biological makeup (O’Briend 2009). Women, were predisposed to nurturing roles because of their genetic makeup (O’Briend 2009). Upper and middle class women’s function was to nurture the morality of their husbands, children and other dependents. However, there was push back to these essentialist assumptions by many woman. In Beyond Separate Spheres, The Intellectual Roots of Modern Feminism, Rosalind Rosenberg details the active role that a wave of women intellectuals had in replacing notions of “true women” with “new women” at the end of the industrial revolution and at the term of the progressive era. Thus, while notions of “true women,” which were intrinsically linked to biological essentialism and used to limits women's autonomy to the domestic sphere, several women, like (), worked actively to overturn this paradigm and, to a degree,…

    • 1488 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Subjection Of Women By John Stuart Mill
    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Subjection Of Women By John Stuart Mill

    Women are equal to men and are capable of achieving just as much success, but society places men on a pedestal while women are seen as lesser individuals. In the essay The Subjection Of Women, John Stuart Mill, a nineteenth century English philosopher and women’s rights advocate, explains how women are equal to men in character and ability, but are not viewed this way in society. Though this article was written almost two hundred ago, the issues that Mill discussed are still relevant in the modern world. Mills argues ideas such as society's view of women holding less importance in areas regarding work ethic and skill. Mill defends the argument that women are equal or possibly even more skilled and valuable in the work force, therefore they…

    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Dinner Party Analysis
    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Dinner Party Analysis

    Have you ever had an argument in which you just wanted to punch the adversary right in the face? Well, that's just about how a young girl felt in the fascinating fictional story written by Mina Gardner, The Dinner Party. The main message of this story is that any female can be just as equal as any male. In this story, a young girl brings up a thought provoking topic. She believed that women are perfectly equal as men. But as any other story she faces objection. To prove her point correct, the author shows us an example of Mrs. Wynnes, the hostess of the dinner party, realizing that there is a cobra under the dinner table, and taking control of the preposterous situation calmly. The colonel, who opposed the young girl's thought, was traumatized…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    It Is Better to Be Married Than to Be Single. Discuss.
    • 1095 Words
    • 5 Pages

    It Is Better to Be Married Than to Be Single. Discuss.

    Many woman are adopting the same beliefs as men nowadays. Armed with the weapon for knowledge and education, the social aspirations of women in society have taken a drastic change. Seeing themselves as no less than…

    • 1095 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More