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The Victorian era and gender roles
How does literature influence society
Gender roles for women in the Victorian era
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Wilfred Langley of “Comrades in Arms” by George Gissing had both progressing and retrogressing views regarding women and women’s roles in the 1890s. I interpreted this short story as having a greater part of progressive views with traditional domestic values still embedded within the main character. Wilfred Langley’s support of his friend Miss. Childerstone is an authentic example of changing times and challenged roles within the society that they live. Nevertheless supporting of Miss. Childerstone’s journalism career, Wilfred Langley expressed interest marrying her and had domesticity in mind with traditional marital roles. This short story had many provocative twists and turns throughout and I was pleased to read about the radical mindset …show more content…
Miss. Childerstone has overcome her illness and is now happy, healthy and has returned to her journalism career. On page 242, Miss. Childerstone and Wilfred Langley agree to meet for lunch the next day as companions. Wilfred exclaimed that as they went their separate ways, he felt no heartbreak that they were not going to marry. Conversely, this is certainly a happy ending because in the face of rejection and hardships, the two remain friends and it is assumed that Wilfred Langley will continue to support the career of Miss. Childerstone and her decision to remain unmarried not matter how ‘mannish’ this made her to anyone else. All things considered, “Comrades in Arms” by George Gissing is a story that incorporates both progressive and regressive views toward women and women’s roles in 1894. Granted that Wilfred Langley still seemed ahead of his time with how supportive he was of a woman’s career, he still held the idea of domesticity and traditional marriage. Each individual may interpret this story differently, but there is no doubt that the ideas represented show that even in 1894, the future for women is advancing and changing very rapidly, breaking the traditional mold and challenging the
The book begins by explaining the roles that women in this time were known to have as this helps the reader get a background understanding of a woman’s life pre-war. This is done because later in the book women begin to break the standards that they are expected to have. It shows just how determined and motivated these revolutionary women and mothers were for independence. First and foremost, many people believed that a “woman’s truth was that God had created her to be a helpmate to a man” (p.4). Women focused on the domain of their households and families, and left the intellectual issues of the time and education to the men. Legally, women had almost no rights. Oppressed by law and tradition, women were restricted their choice of professions regardless of their identity or economic status. As a result, many women were left with few choices and were cornered into marriage or spinsterhood, which also had its limitations. As a spinster, you were deemed as unmarried who was past the usual age of marriage. Patronized by society, these women were left and stamped as “rejected”. On the other side, If the woman became married, all that she owned belonged to her husband, even her own existence. In exchange to her commitment, if a woman’s husband was away serving in the military or if she became a widower, she could use but not own, one-third of her husband’s property. This left her to manage the land and serve as a surrogate laborer in her husband’s absence. Needless to say, a day in a woman’s life then was filled with a full day of multi-tasking and as circumstances changed, more women had to adapt to their urban
The literature of the nineteenth century cataloged the social, economical and political changes during its period. Through it many new concerns and ideologies were proposed and made their journeys through intellectual spheres that have endured and kept their relevance in our own period today. The literature, sometimes quite overtly, introduced the issues arising with the changes in society specifically due to the industrial revolution. In this mixture of new ideas was the question of women's labor and functions among this rapidly changing society. American authors as well as Victorian authors, like George Gissing and Mabel Wotton, explored these issues somewhat explicitly during this period. In America, Louisa May Alcott and Charlotte Perkins Gilman expressed these issues in short stories with strong implications of the dangers of unfulfilled or unsatisfying labor available to women.
At the start of the 20th century, the effects of World War I inadvertently gave British women, such as Mary Russell from The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, a stronger role in society and allowed for them to receive
In the first chapter, she wrote about the part of women in the colonial era in two disparate stages. From the 1600 century to the 1700 century, women just made their family to have happy family. But in the middle 1700 century, they had the part of a “pretty gentlewoman”, and they had much bondage that made them. The next chapter, Berkin took over the stand-up of women’s social; it brought a positive direction. Many women began with the notion of their political actions and started to mention their future. In the third chapter, the book talked about many difficulties in the wartimes: lack of troopers, foods, material, and women’s death. When the war started booming, women tried to arrange in her life. They left their house, to protect their assets like ranches or works. Also, they saved their children. Moreover, in the chapter four and the chapter five, she wrote about the compare and contrast of their perspective between the high level and low level, and good women in the family. Many people came into the military as bondage: they made the meals and washed clothes, also they treated the wounds of soldiers. There were many reasons in the wartimes, but women tried to serve in the army. They did many jobs, but they did not completely recognize their
“Deborah Sampson, the daughter of a poor Massachusetts farmer, disguised herself as a man and in 1782, at age twenty-one, enlisted in the Continental army. Ultimately, her commanding officer discovered her secret but kept it to himself, and she was honorably discharged at the end of the war.” She was one of the few women who fought in the Revolution. This example pictured the figure of women fighting alongside men. This encouraged the expansion of wife’s opportunities. Deborah, after the Revolution along with other known female figures, reinforced the ideology of Republican Motherhood which saw the marriage as a “voluntary union held together by affection and mutual dependency rather than male authority.” (Foner, p. 190). This ideal of “companionate” marriage changed the structure of the whole family itself, the now called Modern Family in which workers, laborers and domestic servants are now not considered member of the family anymore. However even if women thought that after the war they would have been seen from the society in a different way it never happened. The revolution haven’t changed the perception of the woman and the emancipated ideal
After the success of antislavery movement in the early nineteenth century, activist women in the United States took another step toward claiming themselves a voice in politics. They were known as the suffragists. It took those women a lot of efforts and some decades to seek for the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. In her essay “The Next Generation of Suffragists: Harriot Stanton Blatch and Grassroots Politics,” Ellen Carol Dubois notes some hardships American suffragists faced in order to achieve the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Along with that essay, the film Iron-Jawed Angels somehow helps to paint a vivid image of the obstacles in the fight for women’s suffrage. In the essay “Gender at Work: The Sexual Division of Labor during World War II,” Ruth Milkman highlights the segregation between men and women at works during wartime some decades after the success of women suffrage movement. Similarly, women in the Glamour Girls of 1943 were segregated by men that they could only do the jobs temporarily and would not able to go back to work once the war over. In other words, many American women did help to claim themselves a voice by voting and giving hands in World War II but they were not fully great enough to change the public eyes about women.
Throughout history, women have struggled with, and fought against, oppression. They have been held back and weighed down by the sexist ideas of a male dominated society which has controlled cultural, economic and political ideas and structures. During the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s women became more vocal and rebuked sexism and the role that had been defined for them. Fighting with the powerful written word, women sought a voice, equality amongst men and an identity outside of their family. In many literary writings, especially by women, during the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s, we see symbols of oppression and the search for gender equality in society.
Clara Barton’s ‘The Women Who Went to the Field’ describes the work of women and the contribution they made on the civil war battlefield in 1861. Barton highlights the fact that when the American Civil War broke out women turned their attention to the conflict and played a key role throughout as nurses. Therefore, at first glance this poem could in fact be seen as a commemoration of the women who served in the American Civil War as its publications in newspapers and magazines in 1892 ensured that all Civil War veterans were honoured and remembered, including the women. However, when reading this poem from a feminist perspective it can be seen instead as a statement on the changing roles of women; gender roles became malleable as women had the
On July 8th, 1914 the way Women were perceived changed forever. July 8th, 1914 was the start of the Great War. The Great War was not only a vigorous combat fought for fours years, but it was a change in women’s history as well. World War One permitted Women to have the opportunity to labor alongside the men towards the nationwide aim of conquest and triumph. The War allowed the women to get rid of their home life and move into a more prominent role allowing them to change the way society looked at them. The war not only facilitated employment but it also facilitated Women’s Movements. Throughout the 19th and 20th century women pushed for the chance to redeem themselves within and unaccepting and cruel society. Women tried to participate and be involved as much as they possibly could because of the need for their rights. Astonishingly enough by the end of 1914 there was 5.09 million women out of the 23.8 million employed in the military commerce. World War I headed several substantial developments and improvements for women’s history.
The impact of women in the Revolutionary War and Civil War have been underrated and consequently, inadequately represented in history textbooks compared to their male counterparts. These women exemplified “patriotic passion”, unwavering in their commitment to win America’s independence and create “one nation under God.”
During the Victorian Era, society had idealized expectations that all members of their culture were supposedly striving to accomplish. These conditions were partially a result of the development of middle class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men outside the home… [into] the harsh business and industrial world, [while] women were left in the relatively unvarying and sheltered environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This division of genders created the ‘Doctrine of Two Spheres’ where men were active in the public Sphere of Influence, and women were limited to the domestic private Sphere of Influence. Both genders endured considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming either a masculine ‘English Gentleman’ or a feminine ‘True Woman’. The characteristics required women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse …strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels utilized these gendere...
Women’s role in society changed quite a bit during WWI and throughout the 1920s. During the 1910s women were very short or liberty and equality, life was like an endless rulebook. Women were expected to behave modestly and wear long dresses. Long hair was obligatory, however it always had to be up. It was unacceptable for them to smoke and they were expected to always be accompanied by an older woman or a married woman when outing. Women were usually employed with jobs that were usually associated with their genders, such as servants, seamstresses, secretaries and nursing. However during the war, women started becoming employed in different types of jobs such as factory work, replacing the men who had gone to fight in the war in Europe. In the late 1910s The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) had been fighting for decades to get the vote for women. As women had contributed so much to the war effort, it was difficult to refuse their demands for political equality. As a result, the Nineteenth Amendment to the constitution became law in 19...
Society continually places restrictive standards on the female gender not only fifty years ago, but in today’s society as well. While many women have overcome many unfair prejudices and oppressions in the last fifty or so years, late nineteenth and early twentieth century women were forced to deal with a less understanding culture. In its various formulations, patriarchy posits men's traits and/or intentions as the cause of women's oppression. This way of thinking diverts attention from theorizing the social relations that place women in a disadvantageous position in every sphere of life and channels it towards men as the cause of women's oppression (Gimenez). Different people had many ways of voicing their opinions concerning gender inequalities amound women, including expressing their voices and opinions through their literature. By writing stories such as Daisy Miller and The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Henry James let readers understand and develop their own ideas on such a serious topic that took a major toll in American History. In this essay, I am going to compare Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” to James’ “Daisy Miller” as portraits of American women in peril and also the men that had a great influence.
Women roles have changed drastically in the last 50 to 80 years, women no longer have to completely conform to society’s gender roles and now enjoy the idea of being individuals. Along with the evolution of women roles in society, women presence and acceptance have drastically grown in modern literature. In early literature it was common to see women roles as simply caretakers, wives or as background; women roles and ideas were nearly non-existent and was rather seen than heard. The belief that women were more involved in the raising of children and taking care of the household was a great theme in many early literatures; women did not get much credit for being apart of the frontier and expansion of many of the nations success until much later.
Like many novels and mini-series of the past, present and future, gender is always a subject that is to be explored. To begin, in The Emigrants written by George Lamming, we see the recurring theme that gender is represented through the view of the superior or more important gender, and of the lesser but somewhat still important gender. The men in The Emigrants, are highly valued, viewed as the ones fighting the war, who should be looking for training an education, to provide for their wives, and for themselves. The women are seen as lesser, sometimes as objects but also valued, as they provide support to the men. They are represented with a contrasting view. In the beginning of the novel, we see that the men are highly respected; “the soldiers