Avi Cantor Reflection

Avi Cantor Gender Studies Ms. Menasion 10/5/16

In class last week, we created resolutions for laws that we thought should be put in place that relate to the treatment of our specific body of people. There were some similarities and some differences when it came to our laws versus the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. I will start with stating the similarities between the activity and the Declaration. First, the Declaration has a list of things that men wouldn’t allow women to do, much like the document that we used to determine what laws were most important for, for instance, my group, the Cherokee women. An example of this is in the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions is the quote “He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.” This quote gives us a context as to one specific right that women of the time didn’t posses. Second, there obviously were resolution. In the activity, we had to make resolutions from laws that we created. An example of a resolution that I found was “Resolved, That the women of this country ought to be enlightened in regard to the laws under which they live, that they may no longer publish their degradation by declaring themselves satisfied with their present position, nor their ignorance, by asserting that they have all the rights they want.” The only difference between the Declaration and the activity that we did was that a Cherokee women’s values were a little different than white women’s or mill workers. I wasn’t that surprised to find out what injustices women faced in the 1800’s. I kind of already knew about it a little. Even though these resolutions didn’t surprise me, they were still upsetting. I think that even though some of these problems have been long eradicated, women face so many injustices in this country.