Ori Zwerdling

Green
4-30-15
Feminism Essay
Women have been treated as a minority by many men for centuries and the law ought to
treat them as such until there is not a societal difference between the statuses of men and women.
In current times women are treated in a similar manner to many minorities. Women often face
discrimination in a similar manner to minoirites. In 2014 a man named Jose Zamora was
applying for jobs, but not receiving any responses. When he used the name Joe Zamora, he began
to get responses. Even though the potential employers cannot see what race Jose appears to be,
the name Jose is stereotypically a Latino name, while the name Joe is not (Matthews). Similarly,
a 1997 experiment revealed that female musicians had a 50% higher chance of being in an
orchestra selection if her gender is hidden (Affirmative Action). In terms of population, women
and men are almost equal, however there are slightly more men (Institute for Demographic
Studies). Minority rights in the past have meant rights for racial and ethnic minorities, not gender
minorities, but women face treatment similar to racial and ethnic minorities, and should be
treated by the law as such, until an equal status to men can be reached.
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was meant to affirm equal rights to both sexes. It
was never amended because it was three states short of ratification. Phyllis Schlafly was one of
the first female opponents to the ERA, and claimed that the feminist movement made women out
as victims. Schlafly claimed that the womens movement was aiming for both genders to be
treated exactly the same, no matter how reasonable it might be to respect differences between
them (Schlafly). Schlafly embraced the social standards for women and believed that women

ought to stay and take care of families. Schlafly says that the feminist movement implies that
women cant succeed because society is unfair to you but says that this is unfortunate because
women can do whatever they want; which is a main point of the feminist movement (Time).
Schlafly also said that the ERA would take away rights, such as the exemption from the army
and the laws that require a husband to support his wife (A Short History). Susan Brownmiller is
the author of Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape which presents the idea that equal
rights are needed because rape culture promotes male dominance and prostitution promotes the
idea that a man can purchase a woman, similar to the idea that if a woman is no longer a virgin
she is damaged goods. Brownmiller notes that only in rape or sexual assault cases does the
victim have to prove that they resisted (Brownmiller). Brownmiller also discusses marital rape,
and the difficulties of women to create a case against their husbands because at the time by law
rape is forced intercourse on a woman not ones wife (Brownmiller). Marital rape is still a
major issue in current times, marriage implies sex, and the union of the two people implies
consent in sexual situations and people still believe that that is how marriage works.
Claiming that porn is hate speech is a ridiculous statement, however it can be argued that
porn does enforce a womans status as being submissive to the man. A large amount of porn on
the Internet is simply recorded consensual sex. Hate speech is an attack based on gender,
sexuality, race, etc. Porn is not attacking anybody. The societal expectation for women to be
submissive however is implied by the nature of porn. Porn can also be considered a reason for
cat-calling because it implies that women do not mind being sexually objectified.
While the feminism movement has come a very long way, women are still objectified and
society behaves towards many women as they behave towards minorities, and until the societal
differences are eradicated, women deserve the legal protection of a minority.