Watching Mona Lisa Smile all the inequalities women faced in the fifties and still today became apparent. Members of the female sex were not supposed to want a career or stay happily single; their only goal was to find a good husband and have kids, caring for them and making sure the house was clean and neat.
This made me think about the recent uprisings in the Arab world and the role women still play today in these societies. We have heard of women setting themselves on fire and die to get attention, men killing their wives for bearing a daughter and women in general having to be covered up from head to toe and not being allowed to leave the house without a male companion. Most women in these parts of the world never get asked whether they would like to attend a University or pursue a career; they are forced into arranged marriages and subsequently into the roles of housewife and mother;
While the male attitude in the fifties cannot be applauded, at least society changed and women have more choices and freedoms. One can only hope that the situation gets better for the millions of women still suppressed; It is shocking to read that in the 21st century women still die for no real reasons and have in no way the same rights as their male counterparts. While it might have been frowned upon in the fifties for a woman to be single and pursuing a career, women in the Arabic world today might die because they want to pursue a life society only deems appropriate for a man.
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