The Role Of Women In American Society

Content

Introduction

Chapter I

Women` status in American Society in the Past

1. Women's status in early American society

2. The antebellum period

3. Afro-American women's status: slavery and the fight for freedom

Chapter II

The women`s fight for civil rights

Fighting as a man: feminism and civil implications

Representative figures of abolitionists women

Desegregation in schools

Chapter III

Case study: Prominent women in Politics and Public Life

1. Short presentation of women role in American public life

2. Hilary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice's political evolution

3. Content analysis on Hilary Clinton and Condoleezza's public performance

Conclusion

Annexes

Bibliography

Introduction

Generally speaking, United States of America offers the most democratic space for women to advocate particular causes in politics, but two centuries ago women, especially the African ones, could not perform similar deeds. Women, reduced to the idea of an object or an inferior being, played an essential role in American society, as seen in periods of civil fights. Much more, it was women's struggle for civil rights that fully democratized America.

The main objective of my thesis is to stress the role of women in American society. In order to provide an objective approach, I will start my thesis with a historical evolution (the slavery period, the fight for civil rights), ending with a contemporary case study, based on qualitative research. Since the majority of documents I discovered were online, I had to adjust my research method, the content analysis to the limits of this environment. All in all, I will attempt to stress the importance of both white and black women's fight, in the creation of the modern America.

The structure of this thesis is a deductive one, attempting to explain the mechanism of creating the social image of woman in a certain society, I will analyze the historical point of view mainly offered by political, sociologist and feminist studies. My approach on this contemporary topic attempts to reveal the impact (positive or negative) that a woman implied in politics could have. Is Hillary Clinton a model to be followed, did she succeed on her own or because she is the wife of a former president? or maybe Condoleezza Rice, as a counterbalance, is a proper model? Because she is among the first Afro-American women to hold an important political position? Are there another positive models that women worldwide could take in account?

I will mostly apply qualitative tools, in order to perform the effective study, such semiotics analysis and web content analysis, since the majority of the documents implied are available as media articles and blog posts. Overall, American media is divided between those who encourage women in politics, either it is Hillary Clinton or Condoleezza Rice and those, who treat them with irony. As a comparison, I can affirm that Hillary Clinton is mostly criticized rather than Condoleezza Rice, probably because she is more active on the web than the former Secretary of State in George W. Bush administration.

My conclusion aims to the fact that, despite the traditional ideas of democracy and tolerance in America, actually the opposition black versus white is still visible in public life. Through this concrete research upon online documents I will also reveal the different point of view implied by editors, whether a white or an Afro-American women is the subject of the discussion.

During the research, I had to choose between critical or one-sided sources, such as those stressing the white community's importance or those focusing on Afro-American courageous fight. I tried as possible to avoid any categorization (such as the prejudice that black women are inferior to white women or more concretely, Hillary Clinton is a politician today, due to her marriage with a former president of the United States), delivering a balanced analysis.

Abstract:

The thesis The role of women in American public life started with a chronological, historical approach upon social realities in American society between the eighteenth and nineteenth century, ending with an analysis upon the appearance of two of the most popular women in America nowadays: Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice.

Firstly, I could not start my approach without a reliable historic support. One cannot understand the current role of women in American society, if older realities are not known, although they ceased to exist. In the first chapter of the thesis I analyzed information offered by historians, sociologists and feminist writers, trying to deliver a complete picture of early American society. In front of our eyes, there is a cruel society, based on slaves' labor, where both white and black women had no right to speak in public, to own properties or to choose their partners, according to their wills. One difference has to be made: black women condition was harder, since an Afro-American slave were treated as objects, sold and resold, abused, hit or murdered. Inside this darkness, there were black women willing to stand for their freedom, the so-called abolitionists, although regarding black women involvement in this social movement, black feminist studies consider they cannot be treated as abolitionists, since they were subject of the idea, not external watchers as the white women. Naturally, I tried to surpass those rival theoretical approaches, considering both black and white women had their essential role in the conquest of civil rights.

The second chapter revealed the effective fighting of women for the right of vote mostly, but once it was reached, women advocated for the right to own properties and be educated, which were gradually granted. In this chapter, I based my documentation on mostly feminist studies, which deliver a single-approach, reason why I tried to complete the factual information with auxiliary documents issued by historians and sociologists. Segregation in schools, a delicate subject on public agenda today, was another reason for different races (Afro-American, Chinese, Mexican or other Latin community) to fight for their rights. Since 1900s, American authorities prohibited the idea of segregation in educational environment, since all children are equal to receive education, but examples issued by media show that in fact, in American society (mostly in Southern area, historically conceived as the land of discrimination, due to the Afro-American slaves' tradition) white children are treated with more respect than children born din Afro-American, Chinese or Mexican communities.

The third chapter is my personal touch to this approach. While monitoring the articles dedicated to Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice's public appearances, I had to

Chapter I

Women` status in American Society in the Past

Women's status in early American society

In this chapter, I will attempt to draw the lines of women's status in America, between the eighteenth and nineteenth century. In order to complete this picture, I took in account the information contained in political, historical and sociologist studies. If in the case of white women, information is clear and continuous, in the case of Afro-American women, the context is ambiguous. We know for sure the fact that they landed on American shores and were distributed as slaves. Some of them managed to surpass their conditions, while others are lost in anonymity. From my point of view, any research focused on women's role in American society should mention the image of three legendary black women: Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and Margaret Garner. From black feminist studies' approach, their struggle was revolutionary, a point of view that can be easily understood, but the historical studies point them in a more balanced view, that I also adopted, in order to be objective.

Before analyzing the status of both black and white women in American society, it is mandatory to establish a temporal frame for this approach. Generally speaking, I will start from the moment 1765, the Stamp Act moment, when British government roughened the mechanism of tax collection. This moment affected the spirits in America, at that time a conglomerate of colonies, willing to ’mark a radical change in the distribution of political power‘ (C. Berkin, 104). Concretely, we have on one side the colonies, willing for self-government and the long-distance British Parliament, hesitating to accept this. The idea of freedom was debated one decade later. Leaders of twelve of the American colonies secretly organized committees, culminating with the idea of the First Continental Congress in 1774. The importance of this moment is crucial: in 1774, delegates declared that the colonists were justified to have the same rights as Englishmen. Having announced an embargo on all trade with Britain, they also petitioned King George III, hoping he will consider their pleas. In this context, a feminine figure emerges as one of the first remarkable social model: Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams, who wrote from Massachusetts reminding him that ’men were not alone in wanting freedom‘ (J. Hakim, 15). She added, that

’in the new code of laws which you will make, I desire to remember the Ladies. Do not put unlimited power in the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could‘ (J. Hakim, 15).

Naturally, Abigail Adams's affirmation can be subjectively interpreted, since she was asking her husband to improve, if possible, the status of women at that time. But it is an essential episode in the creation of modern American? It is a society where women could speak freely (in a certain degree), comparing with women on the old continent, Europe.

We cannot establish the features of women status, both black and white, unless we focus on family status in colonial America. Generally, New England communities were what sociologists call ’societies of families‘(C. Berkin, 62), where the small group played an essential role in the development of the entire community.

’Both Puritans and neighboring Pilgrim spoke of family as a little commonwealth, the building block on which the larger society was constructed. A wife was expected to obey her husband. A husband was bound by sacred obligations to care for and be respectful toward his wife. Marriage involved many practical duties as well. Wives were expected to strive to be notable housewives- industrious, economical managers of resources and skilled at several crafts, while husbands were expected to labor in the fields or in the shop, in order to provide for their families‘ (C. Berkin, 63).

A woman in a traditional society, such as described above, would suffer public shame, if she had forgotten her mission on earth. For instance, Puritans used the scarlet letter, to point the right punishment for adultery. In this period, the case of Mary Batchellor stands for a clear evidence of woman's in American society. Married with a man of eighty years old, unhappy and proven to have become pregnant, in absence of his husband, Marry Batchellor received in 1650 the famous A letter, branded on the flesh. This sentence was considered an example for any woman thinking of betraying her husband. Beside the religious issue, this example is powerful, while analyzing the civil rights a woman could have in this society. Her husband abandoned her with the illegitimate infant, with no means of support. She asked for a divorce, but her petition was rejected, being once again publicly judged for adultery (D. Mays, 12).

In early American society, a wife was tied to her husband's destiny, even after death. There were extremely rare cases, when a widow could administrate the family farm and its profits, on her own or until her sons would come of age. In fact the family of her former husband would take in charge the global incomes and properties.

’Under Eman thinking of betraying her husband. Beside the religious issue, this example is powerful, while analyzing the civil rights a woman could have in this society. Her husband abandoned her with the illegitimate infant, with no means of support. She asked for a divorce, but her petition was rejected, being once again publicly judged for adultery (D. Mays, 12).

In early American society, a wife was tied to her husband's destiny, even after death. There were extremely rare cases, when a widow could administrate the family farm and its profits, on her own or until her sons would come of age. In fact the family of her former husband would take in charge the global incomes and properties.

’Under English law, a married woman, as a femme couverte, lost many of her legal rights because, in law, she came under the protection and governance of her husband. Married women could not acquire or sell property or claim the use of any wages they earned. They could gain such basic legal rights only through special contracts made with their husbands‘(C. Berkin, 64).

The boycott of English goods during the war made Americans fully dependent on domestically produced clothing and other useful objects, such as soap. Thomas Jefferson commented during the war that ’the wife weaves generally and the rich either have a weaver among their servants or employ their poor neighbors’ (B. Steele, 87). Some women found employment in textile workplaces, such as American Manufactory in Philadelphia, which set about 400 women to spinning cloth (H. Ward, 167). Women worked for wages and in some cases in their own establishments, including soap makers, bakers or printers, making them feel responsible for their own destiny or the development of the nation.

First mentions about black women social status seem to date back from the Revolutionary War period, when all American slaves started to hope for a change. Most Afro-American slaves had siblings, children, even husbands living on nearby farms. Comparing with male slaves, they will rarely escape, since ’young children were a drag on her mobility‘(D. Mays, 20). Once they were liberated, although in the majority of cases that day would not ever exist, black women found themselves into a paradoxical situation: either to leave the old workplace, either to stay. Statistics established between 1880-1890 showed that most women who found employment ‘outside’, as a metaphor of the world beyond the farm, were unmarried, while a small amount was formed by widowed and divorced women. Comparing with white women (usually typists, governesses), Afro-Americans were employed at higher rates in all categories, such as clothing factories, knitting mills and other textile operations (C. Berkin, 391). If they could not find workplaces in urban communities, black women were assuming the traditional domestic labor: cooking, cleaning, gardening, washing and looking after children on farms. ’Work was demanding and mandatory, living conditions were sparse. Some black women succeeded in attaining a measure of comfort and economic stability, but they were exceptions‘ (D. Mays, 21).

The antebellum period

The word ‘Antebellum’ is a Latin phrase which means ‘before the war’. When used in the context of United States history, this term is typically used to describe the time elapsing to the Civil War. Although some consider the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 the beginning of the Antebellum Period, others refer to it as early as 1812. In fact, it was a time in American history when ‘self-assertive confidence of individual was accentuated’ (B. Davis, 1). Generally, citizens of America felt the need to be explained and justified the idea of obedience and started questioning certain laws. Paradoxically, since major Northern industrialized communities became more democratic, the old system of social status (white people- free and quite rich, black people – slaves and poor) was maintained during the Antebellum Period in American South, an agrarian society, built on the hard work of African American slaves. The Southern area was a ‘cotton’ land, where life on grand plantations had not softened. Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana were at the center of cotton production by the 1830s, producing more than half of the cotton for the United States. Most of this amount was cultivated by slaves, who were brutally forced to work more and more (U. B. Phillips, 14).

A census of the South in 1860 brings to light the fact that 8 million people lived during this time period, among them, 383,000 owned approximately 4 million slaves (A. Rothman, 10). A key event affected the Southern area, the occurrence of plagues (cholera, smallpox, malaria, and yellow fever), killing both White and African American people. The diseases were so widespread that in the summer of 1853, 1 in 15 residents of New Orleans died. More people died in rural areas, compromising the agricultural production (M. Lowance Jr., 7).

Yet, despite the tragedy of losing members of family, friends and the dependence on slavery, several movements began to arise during the Antebellum Period. Southern abolitionism was promoted by many prominent leaders of the time, including Virginia's Governor John Floyd. He wished for a law that would gradually abolish slavery in Virginia, and felt that it was the only way to protect all people from violent uprisings such as the Nathaniel Turner slave revolt (H. Stanley, 24). Since cultural personalities, such as Charles G. Finney, involved in debates, more and more people were convinced that slavery was behind a democratic society's mission. Charles Finney travelled through the country, stressing the importance of a social reform, especially slavery abolition (I. Berlin, 2003, 118). America was in the search of a new identity, where slaves should have been something more than slaves, just because they were black. The main idea of the debates, sustaining the abolition of slavery was that people, black and white, lived together within those lands, and their lives together were a more serious reality than any other political issue (W. Johnson, 29).

Enslaved African Americans could never forget their status as property, no matter how well their owners treated them. One of the worst conditions that enslaved people had to deal was the constant threat of being sold. Even if their master was generouss, slaves knew that a financial loss, the master's desire to punish them or a personal crisis could mean to be sold (W. Johnson, 33). Much more, the African-American women had sometimes to endure the practice of sexual exploitation, being used as long-term concubines or submitted to a suite of humiliations (V. Patton, 8). If to be a woman was a curse, the same idea could be expressed, analyzing the status of the male slave, punished for not working fast enough, for being late on the fields, for defying authority or for running away. The punishments took many forms, including beating, torture, mutilation, imprisonment or even murdered (G. Wright, 8).

In addition to the authority of individual masters, slaves from South had to live under a set of laws called the Slave Codes. The codes varied slightly from state to state, but the basic idea was the same: the slaves were considered property, not people, and were treated as such. Slaves could not testify in court against a white, could not make contracts, could not leave the plantation without permission, could not strike a white (even in self-defense), could not buy and sell goods, could not own arms, could not gather without the presence of a white, could not possess any anti-slavery literature, or could not visit the homes of white or free black people. All those interdictions gathered along two century of slavery created an inner trauma among the African-American community, still feeling today as subject of discrimination (R. Eyerman, 119).

Afro-American women's status: slavery and the fight for freedom

Slavery played an essential role in the making of the United States, as the institution grew from ’the handful of Africans landed in Virginia in 1619 to the four million African Americans held in bondage at the beginning of the Civil War in 1861‘ (J. O. Horton, L. Horton, 6). Blamed or justified, the American slavery is a period of political and social complexities, which ended with a new chapter in American history: the building of a national economy and social structure. Soon after slavery period ended, America was on the verge of its Industrial Revolution, a nation created in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal (I. Berlin, 1998, 19).

Placed into a totally different world, African slaves were assimilated, distributed to multiple works. ’Black labor was central to the day-to-day survival and the economic life of Europeans in the colonial world‘(L. Harris, 11). As New York became known as a center of slave labor, a curious, but predictable phenomenon occurred: more European workers chose to immigrate there, especially performing agricultural tasks, along with African workers. By the end of the seventeenth century, New York City had a larger black population than any other North American city (I. Berlin, 2003, 42). Historians agree that the system of slavery became the foundation of the New Yorker's definitions of race, class and freedom for the nineteenth century.

Most slaves were distributed to farms, as I already pointed. On small farms with few slaves, black women were more likely to perform the same labor as men. Performing demanding tasks, similar to men, created the feeling of being equal, although it was a false equality, since almost all black population was formed by slaves. But this very idea of equality led to the rise of black feminism, few decades later, also fuelling the global movement for civil rights developed by both white and black women.

During slavery period, men, for instance, would chop the wood for a fence, while women were put in charge of its construction. Men generally plowed the fields, while women cultivate (R. Miller, J. D. Smith, 672). In South Carolina, where rice was the dominant crop, men weed the fields alongside women. Since rice was a common food item in Africa, cultivating was considered among female domestic duties, along with cooking. In Africa, woman's primary social role was that of being mother. In slavery, this aspect of African womanhood was transformed. If childbirth in Africa was a rite of passage for women that earned respect, within the American plantation, it was an economic advantage for the master, who multiplied his labor force through slave pregnancy (A. Njoh, 87). The average enslaved woman at this time gave birth to her first child at nineteen years old, and bore one child every two years. This cycle, encouraged by the master, was also beneficial to the mother. While pregnant, she could usually expect more food and fewer working hours. Because proven fertility made her more valuable to her owner, she was also less likely to be sold away from friends and family. Expected to put the needs of the master and his family before her own children, the slave mother returned to the fields soon after giving birth, leaving her child to be raised by others, especially old slaves or members of the masters' family. For the love of their children, slave mothers often chose to stay in bondage, while male slaves attempted to escape (W. Dunaway, 125).

Throughout the period of slavery in America, society believed black women to be totally blamable beings. Because the ideal white woman was pure, the perception of the African woman turned to include negative features: possessed by invisible forces, unable to think, unable to feel pain or joy. Often, masters felt the right to sexually force black women, since they were his property after all (D. B. Gaspar, D. C. Hine, 43). Sometimes, black female slaves hoped such relationships would increase the chances that they or their children would be liberated by the master, but in most of the time, women slaves were simply used as sexual objects and their destiny did not improve. Inside this cycle of violence and humiliation, one can notice the impossibility of the slave husband to protect his wife, since the slave law protected the master (P. Finkelman, 224).

A master's control over both spouses reduced the black male's potential for dominance over his wife. Married slaves, whose union was not legally recognized, held no property in common. Taking in account the frequency with which male slaves were sold meant women were left to raise their children alone, but also to rely on female friends and relationships in absence of their husbands. The only possible option left was, like their ancestors in Africa, to take their motherhood seriously. Women slaves put their responsibilities for their children before their own safety and freedom, and gave love even to those babies born from violence (J. Morgan, 66). For enslaved men, escape to freedom was probably the only option left for preserving masculine identity (I. Berlin, 192). For the slave woman, faced with the double disadvantage of being black and female, adding the dependent children, the acceptance of her condition inside the slave community became a normal frame of mind (I. Berlin, 2003, 182).

It is almost impossible to establish a list of enslaved African women that became famous, due to their desire for freedom and justice. Some died in their pursuit. Others lived long enough for history to mention them. In the majority of books dedicated to feminism, African history in America, we will encounter well-known figures such as Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth or Margaret Garner, as consequence my approach will focus on their activity.

It was in 1708, that scholars found the oldest mention about an African woman fighting for her rights, during a slave revolt in Long Island, New York. That woman without a name was burned alive, but her example should proved African enslaved women that they could improve their social status (D. R. Berry, D. A. Alford, 16).

Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in Maryland, in 1849 and made her way to North, full of hopes for a better future. Although she gained her freedom, she returned to the South on several occasions to rescue her family members. This loyalty shown to family and friends almost turned her into a legendary character (J. McGowan & W. C. Kashatus, 146). Beside it, she also kept close relationships with a group of antislavery activists in the North. Married with a free man, John Tubman, Harriet found the proper environment to express her ideas about freedom and the future of African people. Helping the closest persons around was not enough for a woman who wanted everybody to be free. In an attempt to achieve this goal, she helped escapes (dressing the fugitives as women) through the Underground Railroad, her workplace (J. Humez, 70).

Harriet Tubman also took an active role in the conduct of the war, serving as a Union scout, spy, and nurse. Encountering homeless slaves during her missions into Rebel territory, she offered food, shelter, and even jobs in the North. When she died in 1913, she was called ‘General Tubman’ by her admirers and was laid to rest with military honors. Today, she is considered the first recorded African American woman to serve in the military (C. Clinton, 39).

Sojourner Truth (born as Isabella), a fierce abolitionist, feminist and preacher for the oppressed people, soon became the symbol of black womanhood. Escaping from slavery in 1826, one year before New York abolished slavery, she imagined the day when African women would be capable of being free to love, to work and to support the development of their community. Former maiden, Sojourner Truth learnt to speak Dutch, showing that African people are intelligent enough to adapt to the context of an unknown cultural environment (D. R. Berry, D. A. Alford, 307). It seems that Sojourner Truth used her ‘beautiful expressive eyes’ to seduce John Drumont, her master, who in his desire to keep the appearance, married her to an old man on the plantation (S. Bart, A. Bart, 217). As an abolitionist and traveling preacher, Isabella understood the importance of fighting for freedom. After her conversion to Christianity, she took the name Sojourner, as a mark of her travelling nature and her intention to declare the truth to all people in America. As a women's rights activist, Truth faced additional burdens that similar white women did not have. For instance, in the period of her activity, there was a suffrage movement which did not want to be linked to anti-slavery causes. Sojourner Truth had to debate upon the idea all women, black or white, are justified to express their political, social or economical options. In a speech given at the Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851, Truth rhetorically asked whether she was not a woman such as a white one, cancelling the traditional inferiority imposed by American-born women. Sojourner Truth was the first African American woman to win lawsuits in the United States. The first was when she fought for her son's freedom after he had been illegally sold. Later, when she was accused by a newspaper of being a witch who poisoned a leader in a religious group, where she was a member, she sued the newspaper for slander and won a $125 judgment (C. Mabee, 41).

Margaret Garner became notable for a cruel, but honorable deed, according to black feminist studies. As enslaved woman, she chose to commit infanticide rather than allowing her daughter, a mullato, to be re-enslaved (D. R. Berry, D. A. Alford, 113). He was assimilated with Medea, becoming a modern image of the woman willing to revenge and obtain justice. Her example was followed by other mothers, defending their honor. Pregnant at 22 years old, Margaret was accompanied by her husband Robert Garner, 21 years old, his parents and her four children, aged 9 months to 6 years. The family fled from Kentucky, crossing the frozen Ohio River into Cincinnati, Ohio. Because Margaret Garner was subject to the terms of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and was also accused by murder by the state of Ohio, her trial became the longest fugitive slave case of this era. Her trial excluded African spectators, showing that American society was not that tolerant, as it claimed, while debating crimes among African communities. A federal Commissioner (similar to modern judge) overruled and the family was sent back to their Kentucky masters and sold to a plantation in Mississippi, where Margaret died of typhoid fever. Margaret Garner case symbolizes Black women’s determination to resist their enslavement. In a single act of defiance, Margaret destroyed the master’s property and his ancestry (M. Reinhardt, 14).

This chapter attempted to trace a historic evolution of women presence in public life of the eighteenth and nineteenth century America. Although I could not deliver an exhaustive approach, there are some facts, that proved to be useful for my research: the fact that American woman was in a certain degree dependent on his husband and that there were few public figures, that stood for civil rights, either they were white or black. The next chapter will deepen this perspective, revealing the struggle of all American women to reach the effective application of their rights. We will also point out the fact despite their struggle for freedom, tolerance, actually the American society directed towards segregation in schools, a phenomenon that stirs debates even today.

Chapter II

The women`s fight for civil rights

2.1. Women's vote

The last chapter introduced us into the debate upon slavery versus liberty, the social status of both black and white women in American society. For the moment, I will attempt to continue the historical evolution of women's fighting for justice and equality, by pointing the contribution of classical feminism (the period dedicated to the legal emancipation of women, asking for civil rights, as most feminists studies stress). Abolitionist adepts, white or mostly black, joined forces with feminists, hoping to create a new society. Formally, they managed, but in fact, there were cruel realities still unsolved such as the segregation in schools. Although American laws prohibit any mark of racial discourse, I can easily affirm segregation is still a painful issue on public agenda, taking in account current examples promoted by media.

Why was women' suffrage such a controversial issue and why did it take so long to achieve it (approximately, the middle of the 18th century)? Feminist studies stress the importance of vote, as a form of symbolical power, since women had to be dependent on their husbands for century. Their right to vote, that contemporary women find it common sense, was understood as a revolution in that days, since it virtually gave women the possibility of acting together across national boundaries, in order to correctly build the world in which they lived. On the other hand, for historians it was only a natural evolution, turning woman into an almost equal being to man, able to earn money, buy properties, ask for a divorce and decide upon her political orientation. Elizabeth Frost-Knappman and Kathryn Cullen DuPont (2009) argued about the historical context, that favored the emerge of women's right to vote (the period estimated between 1800 and 1834): ’The English common law, which regulated the related of husband and wife in the colonies, gave the custody of the wife's person to the husband‘ (E. Frost-Knappman, K. Cullen DuPont, 1). More precisely, a woman's husband was her legal administrator, since he could sell or rent her properties, being also able to declare that his wife was insane, in order to gain total control over her properties and money (K. Marsico, 24). ’No woman could vote, hold office or sit a jury‘, much more if the woman in question was married, meaning she has become a ’femme coverte‘, her new social status, that of a married woman was equal to total dependence of her husband (E. C. DuBois, 3). After the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the social status of women did not improve, much more women were not even mentioned in the US Constitution that was meant to govern the new-born nation (E. Frost-Knappman, K. Cullen DuPont, 1). The early 19th century cast women in a variety of new roles, since America faced its highest rate of urbanization, as people moved to cities and began producing goods for sale, despite the tradition home use. During those years, fewer and fewer women made clothes, candles, bread, butter, medicine or soap for family use, as they used instead they bought them or produced them, in order to generate incomes (E. C. DuBois, 10).

According to European travelers to America, there was a visible discrimination between married and single women. Alexis de Tocqueville, Frances Wright or Harriet Martineau affirmed once again that in that period a married woman virtually renounce to all her rights in the favor of her husband. Through marriage and labor, such as clothing or other domestic chores, a husband could dispose of his wife's material possessions, on the contrary, her wife couldn't similarly possess anything (E. Frost-Knappman, K. Cullen DuPont, 2). Legally speaking, between 1800 and 1900, a women gave up so many rights as married, that lawyers nowadays can affirm she entered a state of ’civil death‘ (K. Marsico, 25). Paradoxically, if a woman's husband died without a will, his wife could legally inherit just one-third of his properties, such as a Bible, pictures, books, $50, a spinning wheel or two pigs, if I were to mention the case of a New York widow. If the person who died was the father of a daughter, she was regularly excluded from his wills, receiving what the rest of family decided she was worthy to possess. Ironically or not, authority such as those from Maryland were afraid of unmarried women or widows, who could want to be something else, than society had pointed they are allowed. For instance, Maryland legislators attempted to prevent a single woman's control over her inherited property by introducing a statute in 1634, declaring that any women inheriting land must marry or remarry within seven years, in order to effectively claim her property (E. C. DuBois, 4).

Analyzing the idea of divorce, one of the most current issues nowadays, it was difficult to achieve for women in North, practically impossible for women in South. When courts truly granted a divorce, it was only for proven extreme cruelty, adultery, but that woman, reaching her freedom, was forced to lose something more important: the custody of her children. Even when a wife had legal reason for asking a divorce, the man was somehow protected in front of society, such in the case of New York wife proving in 1828 the adultery of her husband. However, the judge disapproved her behavior, the fact she went on a trip to England without the express permission of her husband, exposing him to ’effective temptation‘ (E. C. DuBois, 11).

Generally, during this period of time, married or unmarried women were denied a suite of civil rights, since they were considered ’incapable of spending their own or other people's money‘. In Massachusetts, for instance, before 1840, a woman could not legally administrate her own sewing society unless a man from her family or her husband was responsible for her business. Besides the so-called protection in front of law, a husband was also the provider of financial warranties, including debts, in case the business would have proven to be a failure (E. Frost-Knappman, K. Cullen DuPont, 3). Despite legal discrimination they faced, women had few educational opportunities, since sons of a family were traditionally supported to ’cultivate their minds‘, preparing them for society, while daughters were advised to become perfect sisters, companions, as consequence prepared for their domestic task as housekeepers and mothers. Starting with the family itself, the teachers themselves were reminding young women were that they were not able to understand mathematical or scientific study, instead they were able to perform sewing, painting and singing (K. Marsico, 2011, page 67).

If education for native American girls was inferior, schooling for African American women was practically unavailable. For instance, in South, it was against the law to teach any enslaved children to read or calculate. As a form of defying this interdiction, a few freed men and women sent their children to schools founded by African-American women in South Carolina, Georgia or Louisiana, but in North, African-American children could not attend public schools. The entry of New England women into the labor market and the need for an educated workforce made popular the idea that girls, despite their background, should be educated (E. Frost-Knappman, K. Cullen DuPont, 34). In 1814, Francis Cabot Lowell recruited single farm girls from Massachusetts, that he disciplined, in order to become a cheap, but effective workforce. Textile mills spread rapidly in New England, creating the possibilities for women to achieve a minimal degree of economical balance and education. Continuously, since the number of women who worked outside the home for wages during the early 19th century rose. Although more women started to work for their own, they were underpaid (it is estimated that a woman on a cotton mill worked 16h during a single day and won $1.75 per week). Urbanization meant the beginning a sense of independence, since the women employees migrated west, leaving their domestic chores, in order to earn their own money. Most of the women, who took their chance now, worked for few years, then married, using the earned money to pay debts and help family (the new and the old family), while some ended by attending high schools, becoming teachers or librarians, one of the most common professions among the members of future women's organizations, pleading for the right to vote (E. Frost-Knappman, K. Cullen DuPont, 4).

Among the early demands for women’s suffrage, I mention William Thompson, influenced by Anna Wheeler, speaking in public in 1825. Marion Reid, writing in 1843, argued against social clichés about woman’s place in society, more precisely the role of the wise keeper of a home and that of a respectful mother. Marion Reid went on to stress the importance, not just of the vote, but of even an active presence in parliament. In 1847, Anne Knight, issued a pamphlet arguing for women’s right to be represented in political life (M. Walters, 68). John Stuart Mill in 1869 wrote The Subjection of Women, one of the few books created by a man and admitted by feminist studies. Women, according to John Stuart Mill, are not likely to differ from men; but ‘if the question be one in which the interests of women as such are in some way involved’, then they ‘require the suffrage, as their guarantee of just and equal consideration’ (C. Adams, 9).

Although women continuously required for suffrage at this period, there was a discrepancy. In the 1870s, just one-third of adult men could vote, and though the Reform Act of 1884 increased that number, still only 68% of men were effectively able to vote (J. MacBain-Stephens, 12). During this decade, the struggle for the vote started. There were divisions arguing for global adult suffrage, and others who wanted to simply obtain legal improvements on behalf of women.

Although it is not accepted by the all historians, it seems there was another reason why women's right to vote was constantly postponed. For some historians, this reason (alcohol impact) is beyond imagination, others take it in account in order to complete the picture of American woman, at the end of 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. ‘Women suffered at the hands of drunken husbands, who might abandon their families or squander a whole farm by gambling’, as consequence their demand for effective civil rights and legal protection was increasing day by day. The average annual consumption of alcohol in American increased from seven gallons in 1810 to ten gallons in 1820, for instance, forcing women to fight against the idea of seeing their families ruined (E. Frost-Knappman, K. Cullen DuPont, 6).

There were also economical difficulties to be solved, such as the chance to find a job for both black or white women. In 1838, freed Afro-American women had fewer choices than white women. They either took jobs in sewing or worked as washerwomen and cookers. In Philadelphia, for instance, 5.000 of 18.000 freed people worked as servants for white people, which was a new type of slavery, since the daily average earnings for Afro-American women were less than 37 cents (K. Marsico, 75).

Organized suffrage movements developed first in the ‘liberal democracies’ of Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, reaching the decade before the First World War (J. Hannam, 50). Analyzing America's performance during suffrage movements, the same dichotomy between North and South was preserved, such in the case of the slaves' emancipation. Firstly the urban North started to embrace the idea of free women, working in factories, being educated, while the agricultural South preserved its traditional point of view concerning family and society (E. Frost-Knappman, K. Cullen DuPont, 5).

Women, who spoke out to abolish any type of slavery, were often regarded suspiciously by men. While most men implied in public life did not doubt about the good intentions of abolitionists such as Sarah and Angelina Grimké, Abby Kelly Foster, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony or Elizabeth Cady Stanton, they were concerned that their frequently presence in the agora. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton took action by organizing the Seneca Falls Convention in July 1848, called to address the social status of America women. The convention issued the Declaration of Sentiments, shaped on the very Declaration of Independence, starting with the following statement: ’We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal’. Following the words implied by this statement, suffragists fought to win the same social, legal, political and economic opportunities as men. The right to vote as planned goal ’prove particularly controversial in the years ahead, especially as, after slavery was legally abolished in 1865, African-American men were granted suffrage’ with the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. The fact that women of both races continued to be denied such a freedom was both a shock and insult to the suffragists (K. Marsico, 17).

A special attention should be paid in the case of African-American women organizations, formed back in the 1870s, based on the idea of a mutual aid system. These insurance societies took money offered by the members and used them to help those in need. One of the oldest organizations included in this category was the Female Benevolent Society of St. Thomas (E. C. DuBois, 122).

The Civil War brought the perfect opportunity of campaigning for women's vote. Once hostilities were over, two national groups were established: the National Woman Suffrage Association, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and the American Woman Suffrage Association led by Lucy Stone (M. Walters, 2004, page 42). Some women refused to pay taxes, others demand that schools begin to admit women and feminist journals were growing, keeping alive a sense of solidarity. Besides its old troubles concerning black slavery, America also received 300.000 immigrants in search of work. Young native women left farms for the cities, married women traveled west on wagon trains, in search of gold. The admission of Texas to the Union gave a new dimension to the political debate upon slavery. (E. Frost-Knappman, K. Cullen DuPont, 84).

Suffragists argued that women should have the vote as a natural right based on their humanity. They strongly believed that women could not be fully human unless they had citizenship rights. By demanding that women should have a role as active citizens in formal political life, suffragists challenged the ideology of separate spheres at the heart of liberal political system (G. Watkins, 24). Liberalism itself stressed the importance of civic responsibilities, including individual rights, social duties and public service. Equal rights was a central argument used by suffragists to demand the right to vote, pointing also the essential duty that a woman has in front of society: being a responsible mother, delivering honest citizens to a community that has refused her minimal rights (J. Hannam, 56).

At the end of the nineteenth century, suffragists gained the vote in New Zealand (1893) and Australia (1902), where the suffrage movement was smaller and more moderate than in Britain and the United States. In Sweden and Britain, for example, single women who fulfilled the property qualifications were able to vote for municipal councils in 1862 and 1869, while in the United States women were able to vote by the 1890s in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Idaho (H. Isecke, 13).

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a new sense of excitement was generated by the suffrage campaign. In the United States, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, formed from existing groups in 1890, expanded its membership and made greater efforts to involve black women, in particular, in New York, where trade union leaders such as Rose Schneiderman and Leonora O’Reilly spoke on suffrage platforms (J. MacBain-Stephens, 14).

By 1920, women had gained the vote in most countries in Europe and North America. Suffragists in France and Italy had to wait until after the Second World War and it was not until 1971 that Switzerland finally admitted the voting rights (J. Hannam, 72). According to the majority of scholars, debating this topic, it seems there is a strong connection between religion and women emancipation. For instance, in the West of Europe, where Catholicism and mostly Protestantism were adopted, women found faster a way to express their desires, as well as being granted. Analyzing the role played by religion in American mentality, we can affirm it also functioned as a neutralizer, being a major impediment to the broadening of women's right. ’Women could not speak or make decisions in their churches; the clergy lectured them to remain homebound or coarsen their character’ (E. Frost-Knappman, K. Cullen DuPont, 5). Leaders urged women to cultivate the virtues of passivity, silence, obedience and piety. Except for the liberal Quaker tradition, American religious denominations taught women inferiority as suitable for the daughters of Eve, the image of first women being used as example for the degree in which woman should obey her man. Yet, during the 19th century, religion, paradoxically, enabled women to gain civil rights. Business and politics excluded women, but not charitable groups affiliated with the church. Women found in their religious experiences reasons to perform more direct participation in social and political issues (K. Marsico, 15).

2.2. Representative figures of abolitionists women

While America fought for its freedom and the Constitution was written, declaring the rights of its citizens, women were almost excluded from the new society, since they were not allowed to vote, nor to own property, not to mention the right to ask and get a divorce, serve on juries or speak in public. In 1776, a woman voiced for her desire to take a more prominent role in making decision about how the government was functioning. It was Abigail Adams, the wife of the second president of the United States, who wrote a letter to her husband, John Adams, expressing her reaction to the statement that ‘all men are created equal’, after reading a draft of the Constitution (C. Adams, 14).

No church, except that of the Quakers, allowed women to speak in public or participate into church affairs. In 1828, Frances Wright lectured in public and was considered insane, followed few years later by an Afro-American woman, Maria W. Stewart, lecturing in Boston in favor of educating girls and the need to abolish slavery once and for all. In this social climate, Angelina and Sarah Grimké, two upper-class Southern women, became famous for speaking in public as the first female abolitionists in America. Although contemporary readers would expect their discourses to have affected only female audience, in fact it seems, the two Grimké managed to draw the attention of men interested by the subject. In 1835, more violence erupted between the groups sustaining slavery and those, who fought for the abolitionism. Although speakers were beaten, Angelina Grimké found the courage to write An appeal to the Christian women of the South, published by the American Anti-Slavery Society, standing as the only document written by a southern woman for southern women. The Grimké sisters were not only fighting slavery, but also against the exclusion of women from social rights. After copies of their documents reached Charleston, their birth city, policemen warned them not to ever return home (E. Frost-Knappman, K. Cullen DuPont, 22). Grimké sisters' example was followed by a suite of confident women, believing slavery and the respect of women's right will lead America to a superior level of development.

Lydia Maria Child considered that small documents were not enough to win the battle with slavery supporters, so she invested her money into the earliest abolitionist book probably ever written by a woman, Appeal in favor of that class of Americans called Africans. Her demarche was sustained by Ernestine L. Rose, who began to lecture on women's right in 1836, the same year that a bill was introduced to the New York legislature to give married women property rights. The following year, New York hosted the National Woman's Anti-Slavery Convention, admitted by eight states, which sent delegates (E. Frost-Knappman, K. Cullen DuPont, 24).

Between 1835 and 1837, the number of members of antislavery societies had doubled, reaching the level of 100.000, an impressive number for a society, willing to erase the new vogue. 1837 was the major year of antislavery movements in America, due largely to the great number of women included in the movement and the fact that it was the only method of political expression, that could be used. In North and West, freed women also formed abolitionist organizations, for instance, in Philadelphia, Boston, which also adopted literary and educational purposes as well. The need to provide better education for their children was a strong reason for women, black or white, to join forces. As mentioned, schooling for Afro-Americans was illegal or taxed, such in Ohio, so that black parents would easily give up sending children to school. Despite those interdictions, Quaker Prudence Crandall tried to teach Afro-American children in her school in Canterbury and was jailed (E. C. DuBois, 134).

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, another leading figures in the nineteenth-century women’s suffrage movement in America, inspired women worldwide. Both women were influenced by the social movements focused on the abolishing of slavery. The daughter of a cotton mill owner, Susan Anthony was born into a Quaker household that supported abolition. Supported by Lucretia Mott, she participated at the first women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls in 1848. On the other hand, Elizabeth Cady was born into a good family, at that time, formed by a lawyer and a horsewoman. Studying Greek and Latin, she regretted not being born a boy, so that she could continue her education, reason which strongly motivated her deeds, using all her energy to make women admit their superiority and fight for a better life (E. C. DuBois, 154). Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton met in 1851, a decade after they established a journal, The Revolution and formed the National Woman Suffrage Association. This marked an evolution within the abolitionist movement since Susan Anthony and Stanton opposed ’the Fifteenth Amendment which enfranchised black men but excluded women‘(J. Hannam, 51).

Lucy Stone, one of the most popular women organizing and speaking in public at Seneca Falls, was subject of controversy, although little is known about her. She was a brilliant speaker, among the first women to have courage to debate. Soon newspapers and antifeminists called her a „hyena”, who would also break the current taboos concerning the adequate female behavior, by smoking cigars and wearing boots. Raised on a farm on Massachusetts, Lucy Stone knew from child that a woman is responsible for clothing, nursing children, cooking, laundering. Lucy also wanted a better life for women, but unlike the parents of Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Lucretia Mott, her father believed girls did not need any kind of education. Her dream of being educated was fulfilled at 30 years old, after paying all taxes from her work, while her brother's education was supported all time by her father. This personal experience made Lucy Stone argue for equal education in America. (E. Frost-Knappman, K. Cullen DuPont, 86).

The end of the First World War promised an encouraging emancipation for women, since they used all their energy and knowledge, in order to save children, the wounded ones and gave the American society what it was lacking: hope. In this period, Carrie Chapman Catt started to deliver her message about the need of adopting women's suffrage. Her speech, suggestively named ‘The Crisis’ was performed on 1916, in New Jersey, arguing that America had never been an exclusive nation of men (K. Marsico, 9).

Although history does not mention them, the Progressive period (1900-1920), including the suffrage movement, was totally supported by women willing to change the face of America. The wind of change started with their own image. Women refused to be anymore part of the ‘cult of domesticity’ (men went to work and women stayed at home with children), women were expecting for an improvement, that was performed in 1920, once authorities granted them their political voice, the right to vote (J. MacBain-Stephens, 7).

2.3. Supreme court decision

Before American women could finally achieve their most courageous goal, the right to vote, their relationship with legal authorities was tense, as it follows from the next chronicle of events.

If there was a state, where women felt encouraged to express their desires, that was New Jersey, adopting on 1776 a legal document, that gave the vote to all free inhabitants who ’met legal age, property and residency standards‘ (E. Frost-Knappman, K. Cullen DuPont, 3).

In 1805, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts makes the fullest explanation of women's political relationship to the state, which is definitely a negative one, comparing with the previous example. In 1818, Maryland Court shows willingness to support the right of married women to own property, besides husbands' goods or common properties. In 1824, earliest known strike by women factory workers took place in Rhode Island, where women join men in protesting a wage cut and longer hours (C. Adams, 14).

Women Suffrage Association in 1869 demanded that the Fifteenth Amendment to include the right of women to vote. At that moment, the Republicans, feared the general idea of vote, much more the idea of granting the right to Afro-American women. The Women Suffrage Association received funding from Democrats who believed that the ‘white female vote’ would be an useful method to improve social status among Afro-American communities. The Supreme Court, however denied their intention (S. Henderson, 144).

Despite feminists' efforts, no Amendment included women, but Susan Anthony refused to accept defeat. In 1872, she voted in a presidential election, claiming her rights as a citizen under the 14th Amendment (giving former slaves equal protection under the law, while the 15th Amendment presumed American citizens have the right to vote). Susan Anthony was arrested, fined $100, an amount of money she refused to pay (E. C. DuBois, 51).

The issue of women's right to vote was clarified in 1875, when according to the Supreme Court decision in Minor vs Happerset case, while all women may be citizens, all citizens were not necessarily entitled to vote. The ruling said that individual states could deny women the right to vote.

Early in the 20th century, the fight for women's right was taken up by two new women's groups. The National American Suffrage Association, led by Carrie Chapman Catt, having the support of millions Americans and the National Woman’s Party, led by Alice Paul, much smaller, but courage enough to picket the White House, even facing hunger strikes in prison. In 1919, support for women's right was so strong, that Congress voted for the nineteenth Amendment, which virtually gave women the right to vote. However, to become law, the Amendment had to be ratified by 75% of America's states. Many groups opposed the new amendment, such as businessmen fearing it would raise women's wages and even women, fearing it would disrupt family tradition. The nineteenth Amendment became law on August 26, 1920. It had been 72 years since the Woman's Rights Convention, one of the first suffrage campaign (L. Cantor, 205).

As a conclusion, the right to vote implied a common fight in order to obtain it, both black and white feminists joined forces to convince authorities about the necessity of granting women the right to vote (A. D. Gordon, B. Collier-Thomas, 10). This victory wouldn't have been possible, without the existence of a favorable context, as Steven Buechler (2000) pointed. Women's movements were focused on a stable core, a social group as known under the name of feminist group, denying any social classes, racial and ethnic touch, subcultures or religion (S. Buechler, 15).

2.4. Desegregation in schools

School segregation and implicitly desegregation have been at center of debate for many decades in America. We can start an objective analysis before the Civil War period, when states such as South Carolina had prohibited the education of Afro-Americans, making it a crime to teach slaves to write. Soon after the Civil War ended, the Freedmen's Bureau helped to build schools for Afro-Americans even in the South. The year 1896 marked another segregation episode, since Supreme Court established the principle of separate, but equal distribution of Afro-Americans in inferior schools. The same legal authority, the Supreme Court, decided in 1954 that schools should face a mechanism of desegregation.

School desegregation is most commonly associated with the powerful African American struggle to gain equal rights as citizens. However, other ethnic groups (Chinese, Latino) also experienced limitations in school equality for their children (Ch. Clotfelter, 5).

Historically, the first desegregation attempt can be noticed in colonial New England, where the codes governing slavery did not prohibit teaching slaves to read or write, some masters even provided African Americans with an education, in order to be more efficient as workforce. Anglicans in London established the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in 1701. Four years later they established a school for ‘Negroes’ in New York. There, two former slaves, Harry and Andrew, who had been educated served as the main teachers. Quakers believed that educating blacks was a step toward the abolition of slavery, also a spiritual salvation.

In the North, educational opportunities for African Americans appeared after the Revolution. Emphasizing the importance of education to citizenship, black Bostonians petitioned in 1787 that provision their children should receive minimal education. Failing, they provided it themselves, often with the assistance of generous whites. Most schools for blacks in the early 19th century remained church-related; such as Richard Allen’s AME Church in Philadelphia, where the pastor was also the schoolmaster, teaching children during the day and their parents at night.

Probably, the most brutal state, denying any idea of education for black people, was Ohio, stating a law in 1829, that excluded all Afro-Americans from public schools. In 1852 Ohio, made separate schools mandatory, African Americans had to wait until after the Civil War before a significant number would be admitted to schools. Even the Quakers established segregated schools, such as the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania required separate schools, if the number of African American students in a district exceeded twenty. New York allowed local schools the option to establish segregated plans of education, as did Massachusetts, although most towns followed Boston’s example in 1820m of excluding blacks from white schools (S. Caldas, C. Leon, 99).

As I already mentioned, the Afro-Americans were not the only one to experience the segregation processes. Since 1859, Chinese children had generally been taught in private missionary schools, such as the one operated by the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions. The Chinese school consisted of a rented room with a single teacher and even this small school had to close its doors in 1871. Emphasizing their position as taxpayers, Chinese merchants especially petitioned, asking authorities to establish schools for their children. In 1885, the case of Tape vs. Hurley would force local officials to address public education for Chinese youth. In 1884, Joseph and Mary Tape, both immigrants from China, attempted to enroll their U.S. born daughter Mamie into the neighborhood public school. The teacher refused, but the Tapes filed suit and they won (M. Song, 24).

Soon after 1848, the end of the U.S.-Mexican War, also the discovery of gold in California, Mexicans started to immigrate in groups in the promising country nearby. As the Chinese community, Mexicans also became subject to stereotypes, having limits imposed on the right to educate children in their own culture. The Mexican elite in Texas, for example, sent their daughters to the Ursuline Academy. For rural Mexicans, rancho schools were available, although students found it difficult to come to school, travelling distances, much more the teachers themselves were poorly trained teachers. ’Similar to their African American neighbors, Mexicans began to experience segregation, but segregation based on neighborhood, language as well as stereotypes’ (R. Valencia, 2008, page 15).

Today, America has to deal with a new level of desegregation. The old trouble of Afro-Americans' education is completed by the context of Hispanic, Indian or Asian children (J. Raffel, 14). Officially, all American children, despite their race or cultural background, are equally educated, but as the media pointed, the reality is quite different: there is violence, racial prejudice in American schools.

This chapter briefly presented the fight of American women for civil rights, such as the right of vote, followed by an old, but still a painful dilemma, that of the segregation in schools, issued few centuries ago. This period of time is essential for the creation of a new nation, since the experience of war marked both women and men, willing to join forces for the rebirth of their country. Comparing with European experience, the civil rights granted to women were established later, taking in account the geographical and racial diversity existing in American between the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

Chapter III

Case study: Prominent women in Politics, Public Life

Along the previous chapters, I have analyzed the historical perspectives upon women's social status, ending with the fighting of women for civil rights. I attempted to preserve a balanced point of view, presenting cases of both black and white women willing to change their destiny, a direction that will be adopted in the case study. I will focus on the public presence of women in politics, taking the examples of two representative women: the Democrat Hilary Clinton and the Republican Condoleezza Rice. Besides the traditional black versus white difference, the two women belong to different political parties, that will automatically separate the public image citizens received through the agency of media. My analysis will surpass those differences, in order to deliver a complete representation of Hilary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, as politicians and women.

Short presentation of women role in American public life

In 1974, when the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) was formed, sociologists could write:

‘Half a century after the ratification of the nineteenth amendment, no woman has been nominated to be president or vice president, no woman has served on the Supreme Court. Today, there is no woman in the cabinet, no woman in the Senate, no woman serving as governor of a major state, no woman mayor of a major city, no woman in the top leadership of either major party’ (Ch. Wolbrecht, K. Beckwith, L. Baldez, 1).

At that time, there were a few women involved in politics, approximatively 4 percent of members of the House of Representatives. Few decades later, women became more interested in voicing their political interests, in such degree that in 2007, American women politicians hold sixteen percent of seats in both the House and the Senate, and almost a quarter of state legislative seats. Women served as governors of nine states or mayors of seven of the fifty largest US cities. Moreover, during the last period of time (the last 5 years), two women, including a woman of color, have served as secretary of state, one of the most important and prominent cabinet positions in the American public administration (Ch. Wolbrecht, K. Beckwith, L. Baldez, 1). Hillary Clinton seems to be the leading woman in American politics, according to a billboard established by Forbes, starting with 2008 and it is likely to find her during the next 2-3 years in this position.

The rise or better said the increased public involvement of women in American politics was inspired in part by the revolution in gender norms, expectations, and practices starting with the 1970s. To be more precise, the second wave of the women’s movement encouraged women to enter politics and public life (G. Craig, 24). Women acted notably through various social movements, but I could affirm that the past thirty years granted them full political equality (Ch. Wolbrecht, K. Beckwith, L. Baldez, 2).

During the last decade, ‘political science has responded to this changing political reality with a significant increase in scholarly attention to women as political actors’ (H. Boyte, 12). Women have never been completely absent from political scene, if we take in account the episode dedicated to women’s suffrage, followed by social welfare policies. Soon after the right to vote was obtained, the presence of women in political office has grown, but the representation of women still could not reach the level 50-plus percent of the population (G. Craig, 25).

‘Women who run for office are as likely as men to win, but women remain far less likely to put themselves forward as candidates. More women serve in legislatures, but their presence has not always been matched by a concomitant increase in power, with parties, committees, continuing to constrain and shape women’s influence. Women now exceed men in turnout but still lag behind in terms of other forms of political participation, including donating to political campaigns and contacting a public official. Clearly, sex and gender still matter in important and consequential ways for political power and influence in the United States‘ (H. Boyte, 14).

To be a political actor, for a woman, meant the ‘reconceptualizing of what it means to be a woman and a citizen’. The American woman can be a citizen, voter, candidate, and officeholder. She can support a certain political direction or she can bring issues long considered irrelevant or unimportant to the political agenda.

By creating new modes of political action and change through social movements, interest organizations, and civic engagement. By entering into traditional politics in nontraditional ways, through supposedly nonpolitical organizations, volunteer activities, and personal experience. By working within institutions to bring about gender-related change to both public policy and the political institutions themselves (Ch. Wolbrecht, K. Beckwith, L. Baldez, 3).

Women as modern political actors protest in street (here I mention the most popular protest named Miss America Pageant in 1968 and one of the newest episode, named The right to bare breasts in public). Female citizens, voters, activists, candidates, and officeholders differ from their male counterparts as follows: ‘female candidates are now substantially similar to men in their ability to raise money, secure nominations, and attract votes’ (H. Boyte, 15). The similarity of female and male political actors abolished the assumption that ‘women are inherently apolitical and incapable of effective political action. The persistent lesser influence and power of women thus draws our attention not to deficiencies of women as political actors but to the constraints of the social, economic, and political structures in which they act’ (G. Craig, 5).

’Public policy is intended to advance the public good. An analysis of public policy, then, can tell us a great deal about how the public good is understood different times in a nation’s political history‘ (G. Browne-Marshall, 12). An analysis of how public policies are gendered might focus on two things: firstly, whether the policies advance the political interests of female groups in American society, either, implicitly or explicitly; secondly, what the impact of a policy or group of policies is on the civic membership of American men and women. In order to reveal whether the women's social status over the past two decades, scholars from sociology and political science examined the development and efficiency of social welfares, such as those dedicated to social security (families with dependent children). The main idea is that women are still under-represented, although some of those welfares are meant to support them, in fact they ’reinforced patriarchal norms and upheld capitalist imperatives for the reproduction of labor‘ (Ch. Wolbrecht, K. Beckwith, L. Baldez, 5). The majority of scholars involved in this topic have written that since the early national period, ’the relationship of male citizens to the state is premised on a notion of contract or independence, whereas that of female citizens is premised on a notion of charity or dependency‘. As I could notice from the historic development presented in the first chapters, white men developed the civil and political rights of citizenship in the nineteenth century, women, especially when married, were excluded from these rights. Concretely, while men became independent individuals in the eyes of the state, women were cast as family dependents under the authority of men and beyond the public sphere. ’The legacy of this distinction between contract and dependency in the twentieth century appears clearly in the arena of social policy in which men are covered by social insurance (such as old-age retirement benefits) and women are given public assistance. Moreover, ’men since 1930s are able to make political claims in their status as workers, while women’s political claims revolve around their status as dependent mothers or wives‘. Over the past few years, several scholars have examined the way that the global context affects domestic politics in the United States, including ’the impact of terrorism and warfare on the lives of women and children, the growth of gender concerns in the field of human rights, the work of feminist and human rights groups as nongovernmental organizations, and the impact of economic globalization on women workers and their families‘.

One example of the interplay between international and domestic gender politics in American political development involves the simultaneous 1940s debates over equal rights for women in the United States and human rights. In 1945, the full Senate debated and narrowly defeated the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).Women’s contributions to the war effort had galvanized support for the amendment. The debate over constitutional equality was not a new issue in the 1940s. Since the early 1920s, the NationalWomen’s Party had promoted the ERA in its campaign to have women treated as equal, autonomous individuals in the public realm and to prevent legal discrimination on the basis of sex. Yet among the leading opponents of the ERA in the 1940s was another group of activist women – social feminists and labor progressives associated with the Democratic Party – who believed that women ought to be protected by the state and shielded from the rigors of a competitive labor market. Eleanor Roosevelt counted herself among the social feminists who opposed the ERA because it threatened to protective labor laws for women. At the time, Roosevelt was also known as an advocate for international human rights. Indeed, in 1948, the Commission for Human Rights, with Eleanor Roosevelt as its chair, produced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations (Ch. Wolbrecht, K. Beckwith, L. Baldez, 9).

The idea of Cold War, the economical and political competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, shaped debates over political inequality in the United States as the foreign propaganda stated that American democracy was not as real, as Americans enjoyed to praise. As consequence, politicians started to become more supportive, while women's claims were publicly admitted, resulting improved social welfare measures.

My analysis will focus on contemporary issues, having as starting point one of the newest documents released by American public administration, the annual report concerning Women well-being in America (2011). Naturally this document was released by Bush administration and from a political point of view, I could notice a particular approach to the universe of research. It is useful for my thesis to imply only the concrete data obtained by sociologists, leaving aside any political sense.

First of all, since I am interested in analyzing the political evolution of a black and a white woman. I have to include them into their global social categories: white women and black women in America. The report indicates that women are marrying later and have fewer children than in the past.  A greater proportion of both women and men have never married, and women are giving birth to their first child at older ages. Although more adult women live in married-couple families than in any other living arrangement, an ever-growing number of women are raising children without a spouse.  Women are more likely to live in poverty than are adult men. Single-mother families face particularly high poverty rates, often because of the lower wages earned by women in these families. Women’s gains in educational attainment have significantly outpaced those of men over the last 40 years. Today, younger women are more likely to graduate from college than are men and are more likely to hold a graduate school degree. Higher percentages of women than men have at least a high school education, and higher percentages of women than men participate in adult education. The participation of women in the workforce rose dramatically through the mid-1990s, but has been relatively constant since then. Women continue to spend more of their time in household activities or caring for other family members; they also do more unpaid volunteer work than men. Despite their gains in labor market experience and in education, women still earn less than men.  Attacks on women by their intimate partners have fallen since the passage of the Violence Against Women Act in 1994, although women are still much more likely to be victimized and injured by this type of violence than are men. Females made up 70% of victims killed by an intimate partner in 2007, a proportion that has changed very little since 1993.

The above mentioned report does not state any difference between black and white Americans, but there are the media pointed that America still facing its old trouble regarding racism. For instance, a supermarket chain was sued for discriminating both Afro-American and Latin employees and an important company from sports was asked to explain why it fired an Afro-American executive, without any explanation. Obviously, there are thousands of examples pointing this direction. I chose only two of them to demonstrate that American society is not as democratic as it desires to seem. While analyzing the women's social status in modern America, I could notice the persistence of discrimination against black women, at least focusing on social protection measures. It seems that Afro-American women are subject of discrimination in public health system, as follows: black women are nearly four times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than white women, they represent 66 percent of new cases of HIV among women and Afro-American women are three times more likely to experience an unintended pregnancy than white women. Those data can be added to the information revealed by media, considering school segregation (as presented in chapter II), reinforcing the idea that the opposition black women versus white women is still available in American society, although the proeminent women reminded in the first chapter of my thesis attempted to erase it. It is Hilary Clinton or Condoleezza Rice's role to be played on history scene, would they manage to change this point of view? Or American society will simply go on, sustaining the idea of discrimination?

Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice's political evolution

Apparently, Hillary Clinton managed to stir the interest of scholars, dedicating books and studies to her political rise, comparing with Condoleezza Rice. I made this affirmation, taking in account my personal discovery: for instance, I found online three books dedicated to Hillary Clinton (Christopher Andersen, American Evita. Hillary Clinton, Denis Abrams, Hillary Rodham Clinton, politician women of achievement, Susan Estrich, The case for Hillary Clinton), while Condoleezza Rice was subject to one book (Janet Hubbard-Brown, Condoleezza Rice stateswoman).

As a common point, both women had an impressive evolution as politicians, with the slight difference that Hillary is connected to a former president of US, a fact that sometimes reduced the impact of her political deeds, taking in account the memory left by Bill Clinton as politician. The comparison with Evita, as seen in the title of the book signed by Christopher Andersen, is a mark of this tendency to compare Hillary Clinton in terms of performance with her husband.

Starting with Hillary Clinton, she can be reckoned to be

‘the most famous, most controversial, most complex, most loved-hated-admired-reviled woman—per-haps person—in America. And, whether she fulfills her life’s ambition or not, she can already lay claim to being the first woman ever considered a serious contender for the presidency’ (C. Andersen, 10).

On November 7, 2000, Hillary Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate by a margin of 55 percent to 43 percent. It was the first time a first lady had ever been elected to public office (D. Abrams, 115). When Hillary Clinton entered the U.S. Senate, she was undoubtedly the best-known person there, ‘she accepted her role as a freshman senator with unexpected grace and modesty’.

Hillary Clinton left White House in 2001, as former First Lady, followed by a period of silence and then we will meet her again as a Secretary of State in the first Barack Obama administration. At that time, opinions were divided: firstly, Hillary Clinton needed Obama's support to come back as a politician, based on her former role, secondly, Barack Obama needed a significant, powerful, worldly, respected figure in American mentality, in order to gain a wider respect.

One episode of Hillary Clinton is at least controversial. On October 10, 2002, Senator Clinton, along with 28 other Democratic senators, voted to authorize President George W. Bush to use force against Iraq and Saddam Hussein (21 other Democratic senators were opposed), being one of the most ardent supporters of the war, an uncommon attribute for a female senator (D. Abrams, 116).

Hillary Clinton was ranked No. 18 on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s most powerful women in 2006, second only to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice among U.S. government figures. She had become one of the Senate’s most powerful and influential figures, rated by one Senate aide as ‘first among equals’. It had long been assumed that at one point, sooner rather than later, she would make a run for president, returning the Clintons to the White House.

Her performance is historical, since no female candidate had ever received as many votes, more than 18 million or had won as many primaries. Her millions of supporters hoped that Obama would choose her to run with him as vice president, but in the end, she became his secretary of state—the chief diplomat for the administration (C. Andersen, p.15). ‘After a decade of being dismissed as the First Lady of Twelve Hairdos, or Saint Hillary of Big Health Care’ (S. Estrich, 9) has unlimited possibilities to develop her political personality.

On the other hand, Condoleezza Rice developed a different political ascent. Growing in America's most segregated city, Birmingham (Alabama), Condoleezza Rice attempted to change American mentality upon black women (J. Hubbard- Brown, 14). If we take in account her political performance, I could affirm she managed, although public life is still subject to discrimination against black women. Former employee of Stanford University, she decided in the 1990s to change her professional direction, by joining George W. Bush in his campaign for the presidency. Within a short period of time, Condoleezza Rice not only was tutor to a presidential candidate, but had also become head writer of his strategy speech.

She was also the front figure in the “W is for Women” campaign, the goal of which was to convince the world that Bush was supportive of women in power. She became, in short order, his top foreign policy adviser (J. Hubbard- Brown, 57).

Four days after George W. Bush was elected president, he asked Condoleezza Rice to stay on his team as his national security adviser. She and Colin Powell, who became secretary of state, long associated with the Republican Party, were the first two appointments Bush made after becoming president in 2000.

The national security adviser was that person is the president’s top adviser on foreign affairs. Condoleezza Rice was to represent the views of the agencies forming the National Security Council (NSC) and present them in an organized manner, to help the president in making decisions. The president would have the last word on policy and whether or not to enforce it. ’Rice was the first woman to be offered the position. There were, in fact, few women in positions of power in the State Department‘(J. Hubbard- Brown, 62). Other Afro-American had been in positions of power prior to Rice and Powell, but very few women were

ever allowed to reach higher levels of the Foreign Service.

After the controversial invasion of Iraq, as answer to World Trade Center attack, Condoleezza Rice involved into Bush presidency campaign again in 2004. Three days after the election, G. W. Bush asked C. Rice to be his secretary of state, a political decision that divided Republicans and Democrats when the Democrats refused to vote on her confirmation. The Democrats defended their hesitation by saying that they wanted to give senators a chance to discuss or debate Rice’s role in developing the administration’s Iraq and antiterror policies. ’Rice became the poster child for American diplomacy. She spoke about America’s allies as being the most important partners in facing global challenges‘ (J. Hubbard- Brown, 88). During her public involvement, she was subject to constant criticism of media, some journalists arguing upon her diplomatic performance, but mostly ironizing her style or her passions, a fact that cannot be retrieved in the case of Hillary Clinton, criticized upon her marital staus or the support dedicated to Obama.

3. Content analysis on Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice's public performance

Web content analysis is the main research implied, due to the inner limitations of my topic. News about Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice are available exclusively online, being posted by famous media institutions from US and Europe, still unable to reach Romanian audience

Web content analysis is in fact an improved version of content analysis, particularly deisgned for online contents. If the traditional research method is ‘an established social science methodology concerned broadly with the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of the content of communication’. Web content analysis considers media communication, websites and web pages as social documents, able to be analyzed by a common analogy with the classical newspaper page.

For instance, the image above is a fragment of a webpage issued by US News, attempting to prompt the classical view a reader has upon the common newspapers (there are three main columns dividing the webpage structure, for a comfortable reading), while new media standards imposes an interactive browsing: readers can select multimedia contents (there is an interview available as video content for the readers willing to find out information directly from Condoleezza Rice) or older articles, available once the readers press on their links, in order to establish a chronological order of events.

Besides the online versions of popular newspapers, a research focusing on web content analysis can also take in account blogs. ‘A weblog (blog, for short) is a type of web document in which dated entries appear in reverse chronological sequence. Blogs started to become popular after the introduction of the first free blogging software in 1999 and entered mainstream awareness after bloggers' commentary on the September 21, 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2003 U.S.-led war on Iraq attracted widespread media attention’. Like other web documents, blogs can include photos, voice recordings and videos, increasing their credibility. Although blogs are considered bo be free online creations, since their author is not forced by any external group (such in the case of journalists often subject of censorship imposed by the owner of that media institution), I will avoid including them into the corpus of my research, due to their inherent subjectivity. My research attempts to deliver an objective approach upon Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice's public image, as consequence I will rely on factual elements, such as their deeds, either political or social, not on opinions such in the case of blogs.

Due to the impressive number of online articles dedicated to both female politicians, I had to limit my approach, as consequence I took in account only the articles published in 2013, from January to the moment of writing this thesis. Even in this context, I had to impose another restriction upon the number of articles matching my criteria. Finally, the corpus of my case study is formed only by articles published by major newspapers (New York Times, Daily Mail) or websites of popular televisions (NBC), I left aside any local touch, although any newspaper located in an American town could provide essential information to expand this approach. I intend to use this point of view during my further research, comparing how Hilary Cliton and Condoleezza Rice were described by national and local media institutions.

In the case of Hillary Clinton, as I already stated, media framing firstly focused on her image of former First Lady, rather than Hillary Clinton as senator of New York. Aware of this perception, the female politician made several unprecedented moves to increase the political activity: ’Given her career and her resume, when Bill Clinton announced his candidacy for president, the stage was set for a dramatic change in the role of first lady‘ (B. Burell, 24). At the beginning of 2013, Hillary Clinton is shown to global audience as a self-determined politician, the name of his husband is not mentioned anymore.

Naturally, politicians are ironized, since their public image is related to the welfare of an entire nation. Although she is a former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is still an interesting subject for media on both sides of Atlantic. I took as example an article published by Daily Mail, concerning a society event, where Hillary Clinton was present and according to the journalist had a disappointing speech:

’Hillary Clinton had America's fashion elite in stitches last night, during her hilarious speech at the CFDA Fashion Awards.

The former Secretary of State, who got a standing ovation as she took to the podium at New York's Lincoln Center, took aim at her penchant for pantsuits.

She told the assembled crowd: I'm going to be pitching Andy [Cohen] on a new show for Bravo… we can call it Project Pantsuit.'

The article named ironically I'm going to pitch a show for Bravo. We can call it Project Pantsuit: Hillary Clinton takes aim at her own signature style at CFDA Fashion Awards, after the affirmations issued by Hillary Clinton, attempts to point out that jokes, although are made in the company of a friend, are not suitable for a politician such as Hillary Clinton. The entire articles is completed by photos, such as the present attachment, proving that Hillary Clinton is one of the most popular politicians nowadays, since her gestures are accurately monitored by photographers.

The major interest of newspapers in Hillary Clinton is also proved by the following online document, a special headline created by New York Times to reveal the political and social activity of former First Lady and Secretary of State. We can easily select articles written by New York Times journalists, headlines worldwide and browse her biography. This area seems to be a blog, completing the suite of blogs dedicated to her personality and activity (I have to mention that Hillary Clinton does not manage a blog or a similar online creation, every blog related to her name is written by individuals, fans or people criticizing her public presence).

Comparing with the previous example, I can affirm that New York Times attempts to offer a balanced point of view upon Hillary Clinton's public activity. For instance, the article A Clinton in Transition keeps opponents and donors frozen attempts to stress the independent activity of Hillary Clinton, leaving the Obama administration, in order to start a political project on her own:

Hillary Clinton left the State Department nearly two months ago, but she still needs a staff to keep up with the considerable business of being Hillary Clinton. A half-dozen people now work for the former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate in a tiny corporate space on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, in what is called her “transition office.”

Transition to what, Mrs. Clinton and her aides have not yet said. But the question hovers over her every move and has frozen in place the very early — but for some potential candidates, very important — presidential maneuvering on the Democratic side.

Although my approach did not start as semiotic one, I cannot omit the impact of pictures surprising Hillary Clinton's gestures. I have attached a sample, a picture meant to illustrate the story told by the journalist in the article above mentioned. Hillary Clinton is in the center of the picture, smiling, expressing self-confidence by shaking hands with Joe Slate Wilde, one of her strategists. The handwritten sign Thank You! can be translated as the public acceptance of her supporters, without their help, she could not start a new chapter in her political activity and additionally, these people express their gratitude for Hillary Clinton's activity until this moment.

One of the freshest articles upon Hillary Clinton's projects is Hillary Clinton takes the stage, and the speculation heat up, published on June 14 on New York Times. In this case, the tone of the journalist is mostly ironical, negative concerning the prospects of a potential victory as independent candidate during the presidential elections scheduled for 2016. Even the title of the article reveals the intention of the journalist: the metaphor of taking the stage reminds us of an actor performance, in the case of Hillary we do not know for sure whether she will manage to achieve her mission (being elected as independent in 2016), but the journalist speaks of speculations, meaning that any scenario can become reality, until a certain moment, when Hillary Clinton will point her intentions.

’After a temporary tour as a lieutenant in President Obama’s army, Hillary Rodham Clinton rejoined the Clinton family business on Thursday and went right to work on one of its main objectives: advancing the Clinton brand.

Mrs. Clinton appeared alongside her husband, Bill Clinton, in a crowded ballroom here and left little doubt that she planned to reclaim the political stage she exited more than four years ago to become the nation’s top diplomat‘.

Although she attempts to create herself a new, fresh public image, by forming a foundation named Bill, Hillary and Chelsea (a familly project, as I can notice), this effort does not impress the journalist, ironically mentioning that

Mrs. Clinton finds herself adjusting to an unfamiliar reality: she holds no government title now for the first time in more than two decades. And she and her aides seem to be grappling with how best to keep her in the news, without the State Department apparatus that provided an elevated stage for her during the past four years.

While she has said she just wants to “sleep and exercise and travel for fun” after leaving the State Department, her appearance on Thursday was clearly intended to ensure that she does not drift too far from public attention. Her aides alerted journalists days before that her appearance would be a significant event.

The general idea is that Hillary Clinton would not convince American citizens that she can be a reliable politician, without the help of a party, supporting her deeds. Moreover, she has made an error, by bringing back her husband to public attention, this detail will surely diminish her popularity, although she played all her cards on the traditional image of an united and happy family, a metaphor that she will try to adjust, when she will become president, in that case America will be her family.

New York Daily news is an online newspapers, which focuses on details issuing from Hillary Clinton's soft appearance, the family and friends' area. Although this online media product is not a major newspaper, I chose it as an example, since Hillary Clinton served New York region as a senator, as consequence people living here might feel connected to her. Indeed, the articles related to Hillary Clinton are short and familiar, as if she was one of the neighbors, as follows: Hillary Clinton gets writing help with new memoir, Bill Clinton named Father of the year, Hillary Clinton joins Twitter or Senator Claire McCaskill pledges her support for Hillary. The last article is essential to describe this frame of mind: Miss Hillary Clinton, former First Lady, senator and Secretary of State becomes simply Hillary, a friend to whom people in New York can run to ask advice or help. Obviously, this apparent natural approach to people in that community is part of her political campaign, but from my point of view is a step forward to create a new public image, that of a friend closer to her audience.

Since I mentioned the fact that televisions seem to grant Hillary Clinton credit, posting articles (indeed those documents are shorter than common articles in newspapers, due to the fact that television mostly implies sounds and images, not words, in order to describe reality, as shown in the picture below), I made a selection upon the newest information promoted by NBC about her. In a chronological order, starting from June 15 to June 18, Hillary Clinton is presented as a woman (along with her daughter) and mostly, as a politician: Hillary Clinton snaps a selfie with daughter Chelsea, The Note's must-reads for Tuesday, McCaskill endorses ready for Hillary Group, Clair McCaskill joins effort to draft Hillary Clinton in 2016 .

I took as example the last article, to analyze the tone used by journalist, while describing Hillary Clinton's deeds. As in the case of the examples prompted before, the journalist preserves his ironical, skeptical point of view, concerning Hillary Clinton's perspectives of winning the presidential battle against Barack Obama or any other male candidate. Probably, the journalist considers a women is not suitable for being the president of the United States (the idea of draft affirmed in the title suggests that Hillary Clinton can change her mind anytime and quit the project), although he does not state it openly, for fear of not being accused of discrimination against female politicians:

 Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill got a more than three-year head start on the 2016 election, lending her support today to an effort to draw Hillary Clinton into the next presidential race.

McCaskill signed on with the group Ready for Hillary, a super PAC that has emerged as a kind of campaign-in-waiting, for the former secretary of state and potential Democratic presidential contender.

Another American television, NDTV analyzes deeper the chronology of Hillary Clinton's deeds. On its website I could find any relevant information about her, since her hospitalization in January 2013, until the last facts, that I have already pointed: Hillary Clinton back at work after hospitalization, Hillary Clinton thrilled to be back at work, Hillary Clinton to testify on January 23 before House committee, Hillary Clinton to face Congress on Libya assault, Hillary Clinton takes a rest, how weird is that?, Hillary Clinton out, John Kerry in as US Secretary of State, Behind-scenes blows and triumphs, a hint of Clinton's fugure, Hillary Clinton announces support for gay marriage, Hillary Clinton's every public move generates buzz or the piece of news posted on June 14, Hillary Clinton steps onto a stage again . The tone of journalist is familiar, as if he would know Hillary Clinton for a lifetime, otherwise I cannot explain the use of expression such as how weird is that? Since I have mentioned the title of an article posted on February 1, 2013, Hillary Clinton takes a rest, how weird is that?, I will exemplify my assumption through a fragment of this article:

She'd embark on an epic swansong around the world as secretary of state, a dizzying itinerary of east-west and north-south flights that would take her past 1 million miles in the air at the helm of American diplomacy and perhaps break her own record of 112 countries visited while in the post. Then, there would be a long rest, time and work with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, on development issues and a sequel to her 2003 memoir "Living History."

Finally, she'd make a destiny-defining decision: whether to try again to become America's first female president.

Swansong is usually a metaphor used in a pejorative, negative way (when somebody sings a swansong, would not return to a certain person or project), in the case of Hillary Clinton the swansong could be interpreted as a forever goodbye dedicated to Barack Obama, whose campaigns has fiercely supported. In the opinion of the journalist, Hillary Clinton could have chosen a rest at home with Bill Clinton, waiting for nephews to come, writing memoirs, but she has chosen a different way: attempting to become the first female president in the history of US. Comparing with other articles, where Hillary Clinton was denied any chance to enter at least the presidential battle, the article posted on NDTV quotes few survey (the identity of marketing, social institution performing them is not state, as consequence I have my doubts that they truly existed), in order to sustain her cause:

Polls show her as the popular favourite for 2016; no Democrat is better placed right now to unify the party. With instant national appeal and the highest approval ratings of her political career, she would also presumably have a head start on any Republican candidate in a general election. And at age 69, she'd hardly be too old to lead. She'd be five years younger than Vice President Joe Biden, a possible party rival.

Yet any sense of inevitably is decidedly premature. After all, Mrs Clinton was considered the prohibitive favourite for the 2008 Democratic nomination for several years, right up until Mr Obama beat her in Iowa. Like Mr Obama, some of the potential contenders for 2016 are largely unknown quantities whose strengths cannot yet be measured.

There's no question Mrs Clinton's years as a well-regarded senator and especially her statesmanship in the Obama administration have lifted her above the partisan fray and improved her standing with the public. Her favourability rating in polls is at its highest point in her career, 67 percent in a recent Washington Post-ABC survey, indicating that the polarization that marked her years in the White House, seen again in the 2008 campaign, has been overcome.

During June, the last month of my monitoring, I could notice that Yahoo News, one of the most accessed news portal in US, pointed feminine (or soft stories, such as the protection of children, her memoir to be published, little has been said about her political projects) facts about Hillary Clinton activity, as follows: Hillary Clinton book expected in 2014, Hillary Clinton turning toward nonprofit world or Clinton to focus on children's economic issues. I chose as example the second article, Hillary Clinton turning toward nonprofit world, since the world of nonprofit organizations includes NGO focused on children social status, as consequence, the perspective delivered is a general one.

As she considers another White House bid, Hillary Rodham Clinton intends to work in the nonprofit world on issues like improving early childhood education, promoting the rights of women and girls, and finding ways to improve the economy — a set of priorities that could inform a 2016 presidential campaign.

The former secretary of state offered her most extensive description of her post-Obama administration agenda on Thursday since leaving her role as the nation's top diplomat, basking in loud applause from admirers at a Clinton Global Initiative meeting in Chicago. The former first lady, a longtime advocate for women and children, said the foundation would serve as "my home" on a set of public policy initiatives close to her heart.

The idea of this article is that every step that Hillary Clinton makes (named suggestively former First Lady, former Obama clerk, in order to express the idea she was all the time dependent on the power of a man) is in fact a copy of what she would have done as included in Obama administration. For the moment, Hillary Clinton does not bring new topics on public agenda, as consequence it is hard to believe that she will manage to convince millions of Americans to vote for her, only by promoting close to her heart projects, such as the family foundation already mentioned.

On the other hand, Condoleezza Rice seems to have avoided public life, since her departure from presidential administration. Comparing with Hillary Clinton, who is in the middle of an unnamed online political campaign, Condoleezza Rice (often named Condi as a sign of familiarity) preferred to focused on her passions, such as journalism, writing or golf. One of the pieces of news that made people wonder about Condoleezza Rice's future projects was posted on January 20, 2013 by New York Times, stating that she became a contributor for NBC News:

Ms. Rice, who was secretary of state under President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2009, and national security adviser from 2001 to 2005, is expected to comment regularly on national and international issues, CBS said.

Other figures from the Bush administration have been hired as television commentators, including Karl Rove, the former deputy chief of staff, and the former United Nations ambassador, John Bolton, both at Fox News.

Since leaving office, Ms. Rice has worked as professor of political economy and political science at Stanford University, and is a founding partner of a business consulting firm, RiceHadleyGates.

Another article posted on New York Times, based on Condoleezza Rice's confessions points a permanent retreat from politics. Condoleezza Rice to write book for Henry Holt speaks about her intention to write a memoir, but comparing with Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice does not make a show from this project, the article focus only on factual element, in very short words:

In a news release, Holt said Secretary Rice would focus on “essential questions of contemporary democracy, including the centrality of education, immigration, free enterprise and civic responsibility. She will also address American’s destiny as a beacon for global freedom.

The terms used by journalists are praiseworthy, it seems that all political deeds assumed by her were justified in a certain way, as follows:

As national security adviser she championed the war in Iraq, arguing that the United States knew there were weapons of mass destruction, which were never found. She also played a role in the Bush administration’s policy on torture.

At the State Department she backed a policy known as transformative democracy, arguing that the cause of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was rooted in oppressive governments.

Comparing with Hillary Clinton's public appearances in familliar contexts, Condoleezza Rice manages to preserve a natural touch, as noticed in the picture attached, retrieved from the article Rice's diplomatic skills extended to golf course.

“Somebody asked me how did it compare to diplomacy,” Rice said, “and I said: ‘Well, I know how to do diplomacy. I’m not so sure about the golf course.’ But it was really fun.”

From my point of view, if Hillary Clinton would have tried the same thing, probably would have written in an ironical way about her passion, but the tone implied by journalist in order to describe Condoleezza Rice's new experience is tolerant, almost sympathetic with her passion:

Rice has membership privileges at two other high-profile clubs that were known in part for being exclusionary: Cypress Point and Shoal Creek. Is her aim to make golf more democratic?

“I’m just trying to play golf,” she said with a tight smile after combining with Bohn to shoot a two-under-par 70. “Just trying to play golf.”

The fact that journalists feel a sort of sympathy for Condoleezza Rice, although she is a black women (and in the prologue of my thesis, I presumed black women are still subject of discrimination) can be proved through the frequency they use the familiar name Condi in the title of articles and inside them: For instance, a New York Times journalists writes about Condi's world in very positive terms, leaving no trace of irony, as I could notice in the case of Hillary Clinton:

What do you do with Condoleezza Rice? If you’re organizing the nominating convention of a Republican presidential candidate in 2012, she presents you with a dilemma.

On the one hand the former secretary of state is an accomplished, proudly Republican black woman, a woman who has parlayed her public service into a prestigious post in academia and a lucrative supplementary career as a consultant and public speaker. She is an icon of opportunity (a Republican mantra) and diversity (a Republican shortcoming). She is one of the first two women admitted to the Augusta National golf club. She reportedly dazzled Romney at a recent high-roller fund-raiser in Utah.

On the other hand, she is a reminder of the Recent Republican President Who Shall Scarcely Be Mentioned at This Convention. She was the national security adviser when America blundered into Iraq, the alarmist who conjured the specter of Saddam’s “mushroom cloud.” She is also an out-of-Republican-fashion moderate on social issues like abortion. I would make a small bet that she voted for Obama in 2008.

Mixed-message-wise, that’s the least of it. On foreign policy, which is her claim to fame, she highlights the party’s longstanding and bitter division over how, and how aggressively, America should project itself into the world.

In the end, if you are that convention choreographer, you swallow any misgivings and put her on stage in prime time. An African-American woman who plays Brahms, loves football and talks patriotism? They are not plentiful in the G.O.P. Besides, nobody is paying much attention to foreign policy, especially on a night when Paul Ryan is being anointed as the vice presidential nominee.

On the other side of the Atlantic, in the United Kingdom of Britain, Condoleezza Rice is a shadow of a bloody past, being accused to have dropped bomb after bomb.

In Telegraph's article The masters 2013: Condoleezza Rice shows that she is no token female member at Auguste (a visual fragment being attached above), the journalist criticized her new attitude, arguing that she pretends changing her manners, in order to create a new public image:

It must be doubted if any young female is going to see Rice in her blazer and rush to deprive daddy of a seven-iron, a few Pinnacles and a patio window. But many would have been put off by the perception of golf being an all-male preserve. Augusta helped perpetuate this myth.

One of her few public interviews, where she accepted to speak upon America's destiny, after the end of her role as Secretary of State, is recorded on News.investors, an exclusive online news portal. In the article Condi Rice: We cannot be reluctant to lead and one cannot lead from behind, published on February 9 2013, the journalists indirectly argue that Condoleezza Rice offers free advices for the welfare of the nation, she does not searches for another public function, such as Hillary Clinton:

Rice has made clear for 14+ years in public life and political policy work that she has no interest in seeking elective office. That was now. What about the future? If Rice was truly uninterested in affecting public policy in ways she views as positive, she needn't have given this speech. But she did. She did a remarkable job of both writing and delivery.

Her mere presence on stage added to the powerful display of diversity within the Republican party and the deep, deep GOP bench, especially among females. Speaking of which, Rice is also dabbling in politics by her prominent support for SHEpac, a conservative women's political action group.

The present chapter attempted to compare the public image of both Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, based on their latest public appearances in American media during the last six months. The major limit concerning my case study consists in the number of articles dedicated to each feminine personality: Hillary Clinton is present on every major and local newspaper or television, since she is developing her upcoming presidential campaign, while

From my point of view, I can affirm that Hillary Clinton is a more active politician than Condoleezza Rice, her justification is easy to understand: she is preparing her way towards White House as first female president, while Condoleezza Rice seems to enjoy her non-political activities.

Conclusions

I started my thesis based on the slavery debate upon American society, a historical evolution of women status and sooner I ended changing the vision. The approach, that I prompted, is based on contemporary subjects, issued by media: to be a black or a white woman in American politics? To surpass your public image, in order to be somebody else?

At first glance, those questions reveal nothing, but monitoring for six month the most important newspapers and television in US, I found the suitable support for my hypothesis: that we can speak nowadays of a difference (discrimination does not apply to our case study, since Condoleezza Rice, although she is a black woman, is treated with sympathy) between writing and debating upon black and white women.

The first two chapters of this thesis are dedicated to a historical and sociological point of view, concerning the improvement of American women social status. I attempted as possible to preserve a neutral, objective tone, although my feminist approach would have directed the debate towards the women' fight, rather than a chronological perspective.

I selected from thousands of pages and online documents only few examples to illustrate that American women, both white or black, joined forces to build a new nation. Once the historical point of view has been completed, I tried to deliver a sociologist approach, mostly based on the reality offered by American schools, where segregation, although forbidden by American laws, has found ways to exist, creating the violent, unsecure environment for children.

When I started to write my thesis, I had in mind a prejudice fuelled by media: black women are discriminated. Indeed, along the chapter dedicated to segregation in schools, I found concrete cases where black children were submitted to discriminating measures. While analyzing the image of two important female politicians in the last decades, Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, I found out that the opposition black versus white is not anymore available. Probably, the two have played important roles in public life and even the most racial citizens would have accepted Condoleezza as a fierce politician, not as a black woman.

The case study, I tried to establish, was a bid to myself. I tried to monitor as many online documents as possible, in order to find the right words, the right arguments to support my ideas. The idea of monitoring was never easy: in American there are thousands of media institutions promoting their websites as news portal, a situation that cannot be found in Romania. From this immense matrix of information, I had to select only relevant information, photos, comments in order to establish the lines of what public imagine could mean for both Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice.

I do not pretend my approach was complete or the most accurate, I only tried to deliver fragments of what journalists wrote about the two politicians, in order to establish whether their public image is a positive one or by contrary a negative, whether journalists take in account the color of skin, while referring to their deeds.

The results, that I obtained can be anytime completed by further researches, in fact I intend to continue this topic during my future academic approach. For the moment, I can affirm that Condoleezza Rice is a rare presence in public life, preferring to dedicate to her passions (journalism, golf), rather than speaking to Americans about their future, their role in global economy and politics, as she did before. Comparing with Hillary Clinton, she has never had to face the prejudice of being the wife of somebody important, when she entered the presidential administration, she did it due to her success along with George W. Bush during his campaign. Although, Hillary Clinton has also supported Barack Obama during his campaigns, journalists have always mentioned the idea of former First Lady as reason, habitude why she wants to be closer to White House.

The link between Hillary Clinton and White House is so strong, that almost any article I have read, specified the idea of former First Lady or former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was never Hillary Clinton, but connected to her past. Her new project to candidate in 2016 for the White House chair divided journalists in those, who support the idea of a woman to become president of US and those, who take it as a joke. Journalists are usually ironical, while analyzing Hillary Clinton's public appearances, a fact that cannot be detected in the case of Condoleezza Rice.

Annexes:

Promoting the sale of African slaves

Women's campaign for the right to vote

Hillary Clinton during Barack Obama's presidential campaign in May 2008

Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State in February 2012

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