Japanese WWII Secrets

During its occupation of China/ Manchuria, the Japanese army committed such atrocities as the Rape of Nanjing. Unfortunately, this was to continue during World War II. Capturing young women and girls from its various territories, the Japanese sold the girls as sex slaves to the military, where the Rape of Nanjing was repeated a hundred times over. This dark secret was kept under the eyes of the world until recently, when this horrible act was shown to the world. Despite the fact that many people who were victims of this atrocity have testified that Japan ran military brothels, the Japanese Prime Minister not only refuses to apologize, but claims that the testimonies are not true. But the pained words of women scarred for life by this crime speak differently.

Foot binding

Beginning during Medieval times, foot binding was introduced because people at the time thought women with feet so small that they could fit into 4-inch lotus shoes were attractive. Young girls' feet would actually be bound by strips of cloth, and all but the large toes would be broken so the girl's foot could fit in the shoe. The result was a permanently concave foot that, when walked on, caused great pain. Women whose feet had been bound were more likely to suffer more injury, and had an increased chance of falling. Fortunately, foot binding was abolished at the end of the Dynastic Era, but women alive before the Chinese Revolution still have/had foot problems.

Alexandra Kollantai (1872-1952)

Alexandra Kollantai was the most prominent woman in the Soviet administration during her lifetime. Originally a Menshevik who was exiled in America and Scandinavia, Kollantai joined the Bolsheviks in 1914 and returned to Russia. After the Bolshevik Revolution, she was appointed People's Commissar for Social Welfare. In this position of power, she created the Zhenotdel (Women's Department) in 1919 - an organization which fought for literacy and to educate women about the new laws concerning marriage, education, and employment which were put in place by the Revolution. She made history and became the world's first female ambassador when she was appointed Soviet ambassador to Europe. Although Stalin merely used this appointment to effectively exile her from Russia, her appointment to this office was significant. Kollantai was also a member of the Soviet delegation to the League of Nations. She strongly promoted free love; she believed that for a socialist revolution to truly occur, radical change must be made concerning the way in which sexuality was viewed. She is also relevant for her radical view of marriage as a relic of the oppressive past. She believed that once the ideal democracy was created by the Communists, the notion of a family unit would wither away. She encouraged mothers to believe in the notion of not personally possessing children and believed that there would be "...only our children, children of Russia's communist workers." The political power she held was remarkable for a woman in the early 20th century - especially in a backward country like Russia - and her belief in a liberated woman who was not tied down to the traditional concept of family was truly revolutionary.

Picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:AlexandraKollantaiLarge.jpeg

Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793)

Olympe de Gouges was born into a bourgeois family in Montauban, France. She moved to Paris and began to write essays, manifestos, and socially conscious plays such as L'Esclavage des Negres (Negro Slavery). She also wrote on gender-related topics such as the right to divorce and sexual relations outside of marriage. Being quite a revolutionary spirit herself, she welcomed the French Revolution; however, she became disenchanted with the fact that the revolution was not being extended to women. She joined the "Cercle Social", an association with the goal of equal political and social rights for women in France, and formulated the idea "A woman has the right to mount the scaffold. She must possess equally the right to mount the speaker's platform." She is most famous for writing the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen in 1790. In response to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1790) which was a universal proclamation espousing fundamental rights for all men without exception, de Gouges declared truly universal human rights by adding "women" where only "men" had been written. She also wrote Contrat Social (Social Contract) which proposed marriage based on gender equality. She continued her fight against injustice and famously said, "Male and female citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, must be equally admitted to all honours, positions, and public employment according to their capacity and without other distinctions besides those of their virtues and talents." Her outspoken nature and drive for gender equality drew criticism however, as her views were very progressive for her time. French historian, Jules Michelet dismissed her, challenging, "She allowed herself to act and write about more than one affair that her weak head did not understand." Although de Gouges unfortunately was unable to see radical improvement during her lifetime, she left a legacy for future participants in the women's rights movement to admire and build upon.

Picture: http://www.raffiniert.ch/images/gouges.jpg

Women's Suffrage in Europe in the Early 20th Century

After extensive research on a plethora of subjects regarding women's rights in various countries from the beginning of the 20th century to 1945, I have decided to specialize my topic in order to present a thorough and educating topic, instead of a broad overview. After discussion with my partners, I have decided to speak about women's suffrage in European countries. I have chosen to study suffrage within Europe because I found that the roots of women's suffrage really came out of Europe. Though women's suffrage movements occurred in many countries around the world, I will be specifically citing examples from certain European countries, such as Sweden, Germany, Great Britain, and Russia, since these countries represent many different tactics, on many different timeleines, to obtain suffrage for women. The reason I decided to study suffrage was because I found that in most of my reading regarding women's rights and feminism, suffrage was a main thread mentioned in many sources. The right to vote is also something that was not specific to women; non-land owning men and minorities also fought in the battle for the vote. For my presentation, I'm going to make a powerpoint presentation which covers the main stories regarding women's suffrage in Europe and use specific countries as examples. I hope to educate the class throughly and interestingly from my presentation.