When civilization began, the rights of women plummeted. These thoughts of women being inferior to men continued into the United States.
Riding Freedom by Pam Muñoz Ryan best illustrates the treatment of women
in this male-dominated society. I strongly recommend this book to those who are interested in the progress of women's rights.
Riding Freedom is a book about a girl named Charlotte who grew up in Massachusetts. At the beginning of the book when she is a baby, her father, her mother, and her, are going for a ride. There is a big storm which makes her father lose control of the carriage. They end up crashing and Charlotte being the only survivor. She is sent to an orphanage where at first she has a good time. She meets a really nice guy there, his name is Vern. He was the horse keeper at the orphanage. Charlotte would always go there to see the horses and she would race with them too, her favorite horse was Freedom. One day when Charlotte was racing with Freedom, Freedom got sick. The next morning Freedom died. She died because she actually got sick and it had nothing to do with Charlotte but the owner blamed it on her for some reason. The owner said that if it was a boy who was riding it nothing would have happened. Since the owner was being sexist Charlotte decided to sneak out of the orphanage. She succeeds but, since this book takes place while women don't have rights she disguises herself as a boy. Since people think she's a boy she has a better life. She has a job as a carriage driver. But deep inside she misses Vern, Freedom, and her friend whose name was Hayward. If you want to know more you have to read the book. I recommend this book because it teaches you what it was like in the 19th century when women didn't have rights.
