Question

French Socialist and Labor Activist Speech

"And would you like to suppress all work other than reproduction for women? . . . I am speaking here about appropriate work, not the abusive exploitation that turns all workers and especially the poor woman into a slave, the serf of modern society, at the mercy and misery of speculation. . . . It is said that work exhausts and kills . . . Must one conclude that because women work too much that therefore they should not work at all, and let them avoid the exhaustion produced by excessive work by plunging them into weariness caused by idleness?
Let us work to raise women's salaries, to ensure that they are commensurate with what is produced, raise them in proportion to the cost of life's necessities and there will be no excess, no sapping of the strength of the kind that inevitably leads to corruption, degeneration, and even death.
It is certainly essential that women produce goods and earn money, but it does not follow that her work will only lower men's wages. Equal pay for equal work, this is the only true justice. One must not base wages on the needs of the worker, but on the worker's production. It is about time that the scandalous anomaly of wage differences [between men and women] disappears forever. And is it not odious that under the false pretext that women have fewer needs than men that [employers] authorize themselves to pay them two, three, and even four times less than men?"
Adèle Paulina Mekarska, French socialist and labor activist, speech, 1868
Mekarska's discussion in the third paragraph best reflects the persistence of which of the following in nineteenth-century Europe?
A) Gender stereotypes and discrimination
B) Ideals of the French Revolution
C) The influence of traditional aristocracies
D) Nationalist attitudes

Answer 1

Adèle Paulina Mekarska's speech reflects the persistence of gender stereotypes and discrimination in nineteenth-century Europe, advocating for equal pay for work and challenging financial exploitation of women by employers.

Step-by-step explanation:

Adèle Paulina Mekarska's discussion in the third paragraph of her speech best reflects the persistence of gender stereotypes and discrimination in nineteenth-century Europe. This period saw the rise of the first-wave feminists who fought against the prevailing idea that women were inherently inferior due to their lack of education and were therefore undeserving of equal rights to men.

The feminist movements of this time, as highlighted by historical figures like Olympe de Gouges, had to counter the societal norms that held women back from achieving economic independence and societal equality. Mekarska's call for equal pay for equal work was revolutionary in insisting that wages should be determined by productivity rather than gender, challenging the existing disparity that financially benefited employers at the expense of female workers.