Rights and Issues of Sex

Compose a reflection of at least 400 words in which you explain what answer you believe Zinn, Stanton, Fern, Woolf, Barnett and Rivers, and Sommers would give to the following question:

Should the military have lifted its ban on women in combat or not?

In your essay, convey the answer that you feel each selected author would be most likely to give to the question based on what the author has to say in his or her reading. The author does not explicitly address the question being asked; you will, therefore, have to understand each author well enough to predict accurately how he or she would be most likely to respond to the question. As you read the assigned texts, you should keep the question in mind, which, I hope, will help you determine what is most important in the reading and what you can merely skim.

Required Readings:

Timeline for the Women’s Rights Movement in the U.S.: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womenstimeline1.html

Early Voices for Freedom:

Howard Zinn: A People’s History of the United States, Chapter 6 The Intimately Oppressed (1980/2005):

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinnint6.html

Elizabeth Cady Stanton: “Declaration of Sentiments” (1848):

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/senecafalls.asp

Fanny Fern: “Hints to Young Wives” (1852):
http://workingwomen.wikispaces.com/FannyFern [scroll down to find the text of her column]
“The Working-Girls of New York” (1768):

http://books.google.com/books?id=SlgZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA219&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

Modern Voices of Protest, Freedom, and Reaction:
Virginia Woolf: Selection from A Room of One’s Own (1929):
“Shakespeare’s Sister”:

http://www.haverford.edu/psych/ddavis/psych214/woolf.room.html

“Professions for Women” (1931):

http://s.spachman.tripod.com/Woolf/professions.htm

Rosalind C. Barnett and Caryl Rivers: “Men Are From Earth, and So Are Women. It’s Faulty Research That Sets Them Apart.” (from The Chronicle Review, Sept. 3, 2004):

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=13&ved=0CIoBEBYwDA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.psychology.uiowa.edu%2Ffaculty%2Fharvey%2FMen_are_from_Earth.pdf&ei=wbeyUPjrFuHa2AX-tIF4&usg=AFQjCNGADQcLZUrUVpt5T7HiDTRofEN0aQ&sig2=1gSGhryBs4XlBOdVh9EAKg

Christina Hoff Sommers: “Persistent Myths in Feminist Scholarship