BLOG #9 The Introductory Paragraph

   The introductory paragraph may be the most important part of your essay: it introduces the subject matter and eases your reader’s transition into the paper. A well-written introduction can make both the writing and the reading of the essay smoother and easier.The introduction for a research paper is the beginning section of the paper that contextualizes the research paper topic and articulates the paper’s thesis. Introductions for research papers  will vary depending on the type of research paper and the length requirements; however, all research paper introductions should contain information that allows the reader to fully understand the paper topic, the topic’s relevance, and the paper’s thesis before proceeding to more in-depth examination or exploration.

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INTRODUCTION

History has seen many changes in the views of men, and one of these changes has been the status and roles of women. Only in the last hundred years have women been seen rightfully as equals to men. History, however, is not recent, and there are myriads of examples to how the female gender was given inferior status to males. Surprisingly, the evolutions of women’s rights were not particularly in chronological order. In different times and different societies, the status of females advanced or retrogressed depending on a variety of reasons.

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Women’s movements have played a critical role in creating political space for female participation in politics around the world. In fact, there are more women in government today than ever before.But more needs to be done as women’s effectiveness in translaitng policies into action depends upon gender-responsive governance reforms. And the women’s movement can play a critical role in supporting such social change.

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Around the world women have a lower human and capital resource endowment than men: they often have fewer social networks linked to power than men, less education, less experience and less money. Networks and money are critical for effective political competition.In addition, women often lack the extended political apprenticeship that men have. This means that women may not have spent the time moving up the ranks in political parties that men have, and in consequence, they may lack the senior mentors, the support systems, and the built-up constituency base that men have.

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There are many social groups excluded from or marginalised from public decision-making. What is so striking about women as a general category is that it is so socially enormous – half the population.The structural exclusion of women is striking, and does tell us that there are serious double standards built into how democratic political competition works. What proves this is globalised tolerance of violence against women. If one in three men were subjected to violence, we would never accept that.

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It is often said that women don’t make the difference that we think they would do. The difficulty is that we have too few cases from which to judge as there are too few countries that have too recently attained levels of women in politics high enough for us to expect to see a tangible impact. Women constitute a critical mass of 30 percent of national parliaments in only 27 out of 192 countries.

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Similarly, in war crimes tribunals, women prosecutors make a difference – women prosecutors began insisting on indictments for war rape in the 1990s. Women make a difference to government: they offer women a role model, they feminise public space and make it more accessible to women and develop a constituency interested in gender equality.

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An accountable government is one that gets systems in place to encourage women to make input into making those decisions and that takes feedback from women. Truly accountable governments recognise constraints on women’s access to public decision-making and on their capacity to influence public priority setting because of gender discrimination and low human resource endowments.

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We need strong women’s movements everywhere. Around the world we have seen that we’ve lost ground where the women’s movement is not strong. Collective action has been the key to most gains made in women’s rights in the past century and remains the best means of amplifying women’s voice and leverage in public decision-making.

ARTICLE 2

The staggering changes for women that have come about over those seven generations in family life, in religion, in government, in employment, in education – these changes did not just happen spontaneously. Women themselves made these changes happen, very deliberately. Women have not been the passive recipients of miraculous changes in laws and human nature. Seven generations of women have come together to affect these changes in the most democratic ways: through meetings, petition drives, lobbying, public speaking, and nonviolent resistance. They have worked very deliberately to create a better world, and they have succeeded hugely.

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The Women’s Rights Movement marks July 13, 1848 as its beginning. On that sweltering summer day in upstate New York, a young housewife and mother, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was invited to tea with four women friends. When the course of their conversation turned to the situation of women, Stanton poured out her discontent with the limitations placed on her own situation under America’s new democracy. Hadn’t the American Revolution had been fought just 70 years earlier to win the patriots freedom from tyranny? But women had not gained freedom even though they’d taken equally tremendous risks through those dangerous years. Surely the new republic would benefit from having its women play more active roles throughout society. Stanton’s friends agreed with her, passionately. This was definitely not the first small group of women to have such a conversation, but it was the first to plan and carry out a specific, large-scale program.

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The women’s rights movement of the late 19th century went on to address the wide range of issues spelled out at the Seneca Falls Convention. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and women like Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and Sojourner Truth traveled the country lecturing and organizing for the next forty years. Eventually, winning the right to vote emerged as the central issue, since the vote would provide the means to achieve the other reforms. All told, the campaign for woman suffrage met such staunch opposition that it took 72 years for the women and their male supporters to be successful.

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As you might imagine, any 72-year campaign includes thousands of political strategists, capable organizers, administrators, activists and lobbyists. The story of diligent women’s rights activism is a litany of achievements against tremendous odds, of ingenious strategies and outrageous tactics used to outwit opponents and make the most of limited resources. It’s a dramatic tale, filled with remarkable women facing down incredible obstacles to win that most basic American civil right – the vote.

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The second wing of the post-suffrage movement was one that had not been explicitly anticipated in the Seneca Falls “Declaration of Sentiments.” It was the birth control movement, initiated by a public health nurse, Margaret Sanger, just as the suffrage drive was nearing its victory. The idea of woman’s right to control her own body, and especially to control her own reproduction and sexuality, added a visionary new dimension to the ideas of women’s emancipation. This movement not only endorsed educating women about existing birth control methods.