Mugwumps Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mugwumps - Essay Example There were massive amounts of government corruption during the Grant administration and the resulting problems drove a wedge in the Republican Party, the Mugwumps supported Democratic reform candidates such as Grover Cleveland. According to Gerald W. McFarland, â€Å"Between 1870 and 1896, the Mugwumps, most of whom were members of the Republican party’s reform faction, frequently engaged in protests against â€Å"unsuitable† party candidates† (McFarland 40). These protests helped bolster the chances of those candidates running on a reform platform and partially assisted in the election of Grover Cleveland. However, the decision to go against ones political party was not taken lightly, as Allan Peskin writes, â€Å"To be a Republican or to be a Democrat-these were not lightly-made decisions but were shaped by self-interest, ethnicity, and, above all, history, most notably the polarizing trauma of the Civil War† (Peskin 703). As a result of the election fraud and other types of corruption that caused the backlash and mugwumps to begin their attempts at reform. The infamous Tammany Society was extremely influential during this time period as well, primarily in New York which following the Civil War had an inordinate amount of influence on national elections and politics. This was in no small part due the large influx of immigrants through Ellis Island. According to Peter Argersinger, â€Å"The highly competitive political system of the late nineteenth century, as Samuel T. McSeveny has written, â€Å"led to repeated charges, countercharges, and denials of corruption, coercion, bribery, and fraud-allegations that have been echoed by subsequent political biographers and historians. Taken at face value, these outcries would lead one to believe that the two parties alternated in cheating their opponents out of deserved victories† (Argersinger 669) It is no small wonder then that so many individuals

Woman Changing Tradition Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Woman Changing Tradition - Research Paper Example They have made up their minds to come out of their houses and work like men. They want their rights and want to do all that men are supposed to do because their own gender roles make them feel inferior. They want to be at the workplace, in the politics, and in the armed forces. This has been inculcated in their minds by way of strong feminism which comes with the agenda of women liberation. This paper discusses the hot debate whether women should be allowed to change gender roles or not by shedding light on the way feminist theories are changing the trend. Let’s start with explaining the difference between sex and gender which will show to the reader how gender roles come into existence. Sex refers to physical anatomy and biological differences between male and female; while, gender means the characteristics by which the society defines who is male and who is female (Roughgarden 22). Every culture has different concepts of gender roles that are assigned to males and females, a nd these are the gender roles that define the masculinity and femininity of an individual regardless of his physical anatomy or, in other words, sex. â€Å"Men and women are social categories† and socially â€Å"we have the freedom to decide who counts as a man and who counts as a woman† (Roughgarden 23). ... e main aim of contemporary popular culture is to refigure the body, hence issues regarding the body such as its shape, age and other requirements are the hot subject matter for magazines, books, journals, TV shows and even popular science. He states that these issues regarding the body raise questions about body frailty which creates concerns about gender differences, women being treated differently from men and the inferiority they experience as a result. For this reason, the issues regarding body and the gender differences encompassing the popular culture are the main concern of current feminist theories. Liberal women talk about women being treated differently than men, that is, gender discrimination that is favored basically by male domination. They talk about women’s understanding about sexuality, their experience at the workplace and how they manage their families alongside work. They are also concerned with women working with disciplines like history, social sciences, p hilosophy, arts and anthropology. The other important thing this feminism has to say is that women can tend to change the whole scenario by using their practical and empirical knowledge. This would help construct â€Å"a future non-sexist society† (Humm 5) which is the focus of attention of feminism. There are some feminists who characterize women as slaves in their houses doing work for their families without getting paid and thus their houses become a sort of prison for them. This is often referred to as domesticity. They say that this domesticity has to be ruled out from women’s lives if they want themselves to be treated at an equal status with men and considered as modern. The issues of domesticity and gender discrimination define how today’s woman reacts to her inferior position in