History of women

History of Women

The struggle for women to gain control over their own lives and bodies is a longstanding one that is ongoing in the 21st century. There is a need to explore the experiences of women of color in early America and the efforts of feminists in the 1920s applied to advocate for reproductive rights. An examination of Block's and Gordon's articles shows how these women faced significant cultural and legal barriers in their efforts to assert their agency and resist coercion. Despite facing challenges, women found ways to resist and advocate for control in various areas of their lives, ultimately impacting the ongoing struggle for gender equality.

Block's article focuses on the experiences of women of color in early America and their resistance to sexual coercion. She discusses how enslaved women were often subject to sexual violence and exploitation by their masters and how free women of color were also vulnerable to sexual abuse due to their disadvantaged social and economic status (Block, 1999). Despite these challenges, these women found ways to resist sexual coercion and assert their agency. For example, some enslaved women negotiated with their masters to limit the number of sexual encounters, while others resisted through physical violence or by seeking help from other enslaved people or free people of color. Gordon's article, on the other hand, focuses on the efforts of feminists in the 1920s to advocate for birth control as a way to gain control over their reproductive rights. She discusses how the Comstock Act of 1873 prohibited the distribution of information about birth control and how this effectively denied women the ability to plan their pregnancies and control their fertility (Gordon, 1973). Despite these legal barriers, feminists worked to challenge the Comstock Act and promote access to birth control, eventually leading to the legalization of birth control in the United States in 1965.

Both articles address women's efforts to gain control over their lives and bodies. However, there are some key differences between them. One major difference is the context of control. Block's article focuses on control in early America, while Gordon's article focuses on control during the 1920s (Block, 1999; Gordon, 1973). Another difference is the specific areas of control that are addressed. Block's article discusses control over sexual coercion, while Gordon's discusses control over reproductive rights.

While the two articles differ in certain ways, they also have some elements in common. Both discuss women's efforts to gain control in the face of cultural and legal barriers. In both articles, women resisted and challenged the systems that denied them control, whether through resistance to sexual coercion or advocacy for birth control (Block, 1999; Gordon, 1973). The women in these readings successfully achieved some control over their lives and bodies, but the extent of this control varied depending on the specific context and challenges they faced. In the case of the women discussed in Block's article, they could resist sexual coercion to some degree but were still limited by their disadvantaged social and economic status (Block, 1999). In the case of the feminists discussed in Gordon's article, they were able to advocate for and eventually achieve legal access to birth control, but this took many years of struggle and resistance.

In conclusion, the women depicted in the two readings successfully exerted some control over their lives and bodies in a culture that legally and culturally denied them this right. Despite facing significant challenges, they found ways to resist and advocate for control in various areas of their lives. These efforts had a big effect on the lives of women and helped in the ongoing fight for gender equality. 

References

Block, S. (1999). Lines of color, sex, and service: Comparative sexual coercion in early America. Sex, love, race: Crossing boundaries in North American history, 141-163.

Gordon, L. (1973). Voluntary motherhood; the beginnings of feminist birth control ideas in the United States. Feminist Studies, 1(3/4), 5-22.