Womens role then and now

Assignment 2: Project Paper

Due Week 4 and worth 200 points

The Project Paper focuses on a suggested topic related to art, architecture, history, music, or literature. The project will reflect your views and interpretation of the topic. This project is designed to help you stretch your mind and your abilities to be the creative, innovative, and critical thinker you already are!

Choose one (1) of the topics from the list of topic choices below. Read the topic carefully. Write a three  (3) page paper (750-1,000 words) that responds to each of the items described in the topic.

For the topic you choose:

Support your ideas with specific, illustrative examples. If there are questions or points associated with your chosen topic, be sure to answer all of the listed questions and address all of the items in that topic. If your topic asks you to do several things related to the topic, be sure to do each of the things listed.

While some of the topics tend to lend themselves toward particular writing genres, you are not restricted to the specific format suggested for the individual topic. For example, you may do an “interview,” a “proposal,” a “letter,” a “short story,” a “blog,” an “essay,” an “article,” or any other written genre for almost any of the topics. The project is intended to be fun as well as informative, so feel free to be creative with the delivery of your information.

Use at least three (3) good quality academic sources, with one (1) source being the class text. Note: Wikipedia and other similar Websites do not qualify as academic resources. You are highly encouraged to use the Resource Center tab at the top of your Blackboard page.

Note: Your instructor may require you to submit your topic choice for approval before the end of Week 2.

Topic choices (pick 1):

Office Art Memo. Memorandum. Your boss, who knows you have been taking a humanities class since he pays for your tuition reimbursement, has tasked you with managing the art budget for your company, expecting you to choose various pieces of art for the new corporate offices.  (Note: Replicas of the works are acceptable since they are more cost-efficient and you are working on a budget.) Include the following:

Identify three (3) examples of 19th century Impressionist painting or sculpture and three (3) Post-Impressionist works. Explain how the six (6) pieces of art fall into these two (2) styles.

In a memo, describe the appearance of your six (6) choices to your CEO so he or she will know what the art looks like and where it would be placed in the corporate offices.

Explain why each piece is considered to be historically significant.

Explain how each piece “fits” your company’s overall (or desired) corporate image. Keep in mind that a piece of art is supposed to “say” something about the owner, so describe what would these pieces of art say about your company.

New Composition. Speech. Your uncle’s birthday is in two (2) months, and everyone knows that he loves almost all kinds of music. As a birthday gift for him, you want to have a special piece of music composed in his honor which will be played at a family birthday celebration. Write a speech that you will make to the composer’s agent. Include the following:

Narrow your choices down to three (3) composers you’ve studied in this course. Choose one (1) of the composers and explain why you want him to write the “birthday present” music.

Explain why the other two (2) composers were ultimately not selected.

Specifically identify the musical elements in the composer’s style that you would like to be included in the new music written for your uncle.

Describe what sort of emotion is generated by listening to the works of your selected composer; in other words, what do you want your uncle to “feel” as he hears the music, and why is this composer so perfect for this composition?

Harlem Renaissance Poets. Essay & Poem. Choose two (2) poems by different authors from the Harlem Renaissance. Write an essay that:

Describes each author’s role and importance within the Harlem Renaissance.

Identify the elements in each of their poems in which you see evidence of the “double-consciousness” being expressed by each author.

Fully describe at least two (2) primary themes you see in the poetry written during this time period, referring to specific lines in each of the poems.

Write your own poem that expresses these identified themes of the Harlem Renaissance. 

Women’s Roles Then & Now. Script. Script a conversation between two (2) notable women from the 18th and / or 19th century on the roles women should play in society. Within the dialogue, include:

Biographical information for each woman.

The historical status for women in general during the time period in which each woman lived.

What opinions each of the women might have on the role the women should play in society during their lifetimes.

What each of the women might think about women’s current roles.

Other topic choice recommended and approved by the professor and supported by the grading rubric.

Women’s role then and now

Institutional affiliation

Date

Women’s role then and now

Biography

The birth date of Louisa May Alcott is November 29, 1832, in German town Pennsylvania. Louisa came from a family of four daughters. She was the second of the four sisters. Her father was a reformer called Bronson while her mother was named Abigail Alcott. Alcott was the bestselling novelist during the 1800s. She wrote many stories and poems, but her most popular was “Little Women” which is still popular until today. Alcott was taught from home by her father Bronson until the end of 1848. She used to study informally with family friends such as Theodore Parker and Henry David Thoreau, later on, she went to reside in Boston, Massachusetts where she worked as a domestic servant and teacher to help support her family in 1850 to 1862. When the civil started she move to Washington DC where she worked as a nurse.

Louisa had been publishing poems, thrillers, juvenile tales and short stories since 1851. She was publishing this works under the pen mane, Flora Fairfield. Later on, in 1862, she adopted the pen name A. M Barnard. Some of her dramas in her novels and short stories got produced in multiple Boston stages. Alcott emerged out to be a serious writer after the publishing of a story called “Hospital Sketches”. The story confirmed Alcott’s desire to be a serious writer. Later on, in the 1860s, she began to publish stories under her real name. Some of this stories include Atlantic Monthly and Lady’s Companion. In 1865, she took a trip to Europe before she become an editor of the girl’s magazine “Merry Museum”. Her most famous work Little Women, which got published in 1869, gave her financial independence and created demand for more of her books. In the next few years of her life, she wrote many stories mainly for young people. Other works include Little Men, Jo’s Boys, and Eight Cousins. Alcott died at the age of 56 in 1888.

Historical status of women

During Louisa’s time, many women avoided national voting. Although women were allowed to take part in voting, many women still saw voting as a men’s world. The society considered women’s opinion not as important as men’s. At that time, women were not regarded as serious writers and young women were left to grow up thinking that women cannot achieve the kind of achievement that men possessed. The 19th century saw women live in gender constraints time where men were considered superior that women in all aspects.

Opinion of Louisa

In her written work Louisa had a vision of an All-American girl where women got treated with equal treatment as men. Some people even nicknamed her the “feminist imagination” because she had envisioned a society where all of the women’s rights got upheld. Louisa campaigned for gender roles and took key positions in different women journals to emancipate women on rights they have in the society. She educated Juvenile women on the struggles they will have to go through as young girls. Louisa also campaigned on the nature of individual integrity and the need for women to acquire a public identity. Through her written works she reinforced the importance of women in the society.

Current roles of women

In the 21st century, women have taken up a more active roles in the society. Many religions accepted women to take up leadership roles. Many countries in the past and present have also elected women as their leaders. The current society acknowledges the rights of women and gives them an equal opportunity as men. Louisa would be proud of the roles women have taken in the community. She would also be proud of how the community has come to acknowledge women as equals of men.

Clara Barton

Biography

Clara Barton was born on 1821 December 21st. She was the youngest of five children in a middle-class family. Barton undertook homeschooling until the age of 15 when started working a teacher. She taught in many schools, and she even found a public school in Bordentown, New Jersey. Clara is remembered as the founder of the American Red Cross and an activist of women rights. Even though she never went to medical school and her only medical experience came when she nursed invalid brother for two years. In the year 1861, Clara was living and working in Washington as a U.S patent officer when the 6th Massachusetts Regiment came into the city after the Baltimore riots. She organized a relief program for the injured soldiers and the same time she championed for women rights through starting multiple women’s programs. She campaigned for women to take up more active roles in the society.

When she realized that many of the soldiers had suffered for lack of medical supplies, she advertised for the donation of Medicine during a Worcester Mass. She later on, began an independent organization to distribute medicine to relief areas mainly soldier camps. She was later on given a direct pass by the army general Surgeon General William to travel with army ambulance to deliver her goods and medical supplies. At the same time Barton recruited many women to follow her activist programs to fight for women’s rights. For more than three years she followed Army operations throughout Virginia caring for those soldiers who were casualties during battles. Later on, Clara formed a formal civil connection with the army when she became the superintendent of nurses. Clara later on organized programs for men considered missing in action. When The Battle of the Wilderness ended, she called her organization American Red Cross becoming the first president of the organization.

Historical status of women

In the period of Clara women struggled for equality. Most Americans at her time assumed that there was a natural order which placed men above women in the society. The existing assumptions by many Americans prevented women from taking leadership roles in the community. At that time, you would not find a woman as a head of an office or an organization. Women at that time were expected to be submissive and to act as loyal wives. At the time of Clara, no woman was heading an organization and society considered that as a regular order in nature, for Clara to come out and start a relief organization on her own: it opposes all aspects the society had about women.

Opinion of Clara

Clara considered equal rights of women and men. She never took the society’s assumptions seriously which enabled her to succeed in her vision and aspiration. Clara saw women as equals of men; this is evident on her starting an organization where she hires males and females. Clara cared about the soldiers and was irritated that they lacked proper medical treatment and medical supply after the war. Barton’s active role in the society acting as a nurse superintendent and starting her relief organization showed her stand against gender constraints in the society.

Current roles of women

The current society accepts women as heads. Women have come out to lead clubs, groups and even countries. The world today doesn’t discriminate on gender and if Clara were alive, today she would be proud of how women and the society at large have taken significant steps to put women and men in the same ordered spheres. Clara Burton would be happy and content with the position of women in the society today.

References

Biography.com. (2013, September 22). About Us: Biography. Retrieved from The Biography.com website: http://www/biography.com/people/louisa-may-alcott-91769520

Harper, J. E. (2006). Women during the Civil War. The Socialist, 67- 78.

Huntley, T. (2010). Women in the Renaissance. New York: Crabtee Pub Co.