Exploitation of Women: Slavery, Wartime Workforce, and Rights at Work

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Labor and Exploitation of Women
Introduction
Exploitation and labor are often inextricably connected and have been so since the colonization of the Americas. Historically, labor in the United States began as free from slavery and made a gradual change to waged labor, where exploitation began among certain social groups. The exploitation does not apply equally across races, classes, and gender. For example, slavery entailed exploiting enslaved African Americans who worked for the white masters. Additionally, women are often the most exploited gender across all races due to such systemic problems as lower wages as compared to men. The focus of this essay is to explore labor issues surrounding women and makes an argument that women have been uniquely exploited due to their gender. To achieve this objective, the essay will explore some core themes within the reading materials and derive examples of women's exploitation. These themes include slavery, wartime workforce, and women's rights at work.
Slavery
Slavery lasted for several decades in the United States until it was abolished after the American civil war. Slavery remains one of the most controversial subjects since it is evil and violates fundamental human rights. Most importantly, as it is known today, America will always be defined by slavery since the enslaved people built America in a literal sense. In this case, such historical events as the Civil War show how racial gaps were perceived and lines drawn between the whites and the blacks. Many people opposed the abolition of slavery, as expressed in Samuel Cox's speech in congress, where he argued that the blacks would become unequal to the whites and the two different societies could not succeed equally in the same society (Condemning Emancipation 291). The need to look at slavery emanates from the fact that it forms a broader definition of labor and exploitation across races. Therefore, all blacks were forced into labor, and this included women who worked for the plantation and mines owners. During the early years, most of the white population owned property that required the use of labor. The whites often worked as enslavers or foremen, which illustrated the privileged positions of the whites.
Additionally, the theme of slavery helps to make the comparison between free and unfree and paid and unpaid. In this case, the generalization of both populations makes it possible to illustrate that black women were enslaved people forced into offering unpaid labor. On the contrary, the white women were free people and were not engaged in unpaid labor. In later years, especially after the Civil War, the cases of white women joining the labor force emerged and were paid work. In essence, the main argument is that black women engaged in unpaid labor while white women were never subjected to the same treatment. Additionally, white women were free and black women were unfree. One aspect not highlighted in the current materials is that women mainly worked at home doing domestic chores. The white women were often the masters who mostly never worked, even in paid labor.
Women and Wartime Workforce
The Civil War is particularly important in this discussion, considering that it mar...