ale role models.Towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, there were several women who did proactively help to improve the lot of there fellow women. One such woman was Elizabeth Blackwell. She graduated from Genevas medical school in 1849 and later returned to her native North America were she became the first North American female doctor. She went on to become one of the founding members of the London School of Medicine. In this way Elizabeth Blackwell helped return women the domain of the healing arts. Alice Paul is another example of an early feminist. She was the founder of the National Womens Party, played a leading role in the Suffrage movement and helped to draft the U.S. Equal Rights Amendment. She helped return women to the domain of community leadership and political activism.It is from these examples that one can say that liberal feminism was born. These women "wanted in" they played the game in a mans world and played by the mens rules. They did not ask for any special treatment. They simply decided that they did have a choice in life and that they would choose a path of strength, reason, and independence. These women managed to break out of the private sphere that was long regarded to be the place for women, into the public sphere which had always (and to an extent still is) regarded as the domain of men.It has taken almost 3 centuries to repair the damage done to women's reputations and we still cannot claim success. The repercussions can still be felt to this day. Although the status of women in our modern society is improving everyday women are still not considered men's equals in the workplace or in the home. The average women's salary as of 1993 is still 72% of that of a man's (MacIvor; 1996; p112). Many women with family responsibilities work anywhere from 4 to 8.5 hours of unpaid work per day (MacIvor; 1996; p107). If these women also work, this means they have little time for anythi...
