I Stand Here Ironing

“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics and factories. Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity... Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.” - Kofi Annan

According to the Cambridge Dictionary the word literacy means “the ability to read and write”. I think that definition is incomplete, if I could write my own definition I would say that literacy is the ability to read, write, understand and

Wearing dresses, cooking, taking care of the children and smiling. Being a woman was pretty effortless, the biggest challenge was to raise your children, which I won't say the opposite, it is very exhausting and hard. Women depended on men financially, to have a home and to feed their family, but there were men who would bail and the mother became two, a mother and a father. In the second story, “I Stand Here Ironing”, its major subject is motherhood in a feminist point of view (Bao). Instead of making the mother just a housewife, Olsen creates the challenge that now she has to adapt the role of a father too. You can see how the woman fought between loving her daughter, duty of a mother, and providing for her and her siblings, father's duty. Above all, the story is placed in times of war and economic depression, making it even more hard for the whole family. Her motherhood is put into questioning only because she is judging herself inside the parameters that enclose that women are made to nurture their kids, and she sacrifices affectionate love to be able to keep a roof under their

“Let her be. So all that is in her will not bloom-but in how many does it? There is still enough left to live by. Only help her to know-help make it so there is cause for her to know-that she is more than this dress on the ironing board. Helpless before the iron.” (“I Stand Here Ironing”) She wanted her daughter to outgrow the insecurities of the expectations of society. Not to let herself think she is under others, with her dark skin, and thin body. She wanted her child to know that she can achieve greater things, not to let standards define her life. We usually cave in to the expectation they have for us, thinking that’s how it is “supposed to be” but, even if expectations are high, they still limit you to achieve more than that. So many children are restricted and limited because of the lack of gender equity. Gender equity should be promoted to children to decrease the idea of men dominance and the discrimination towards women this implies (“A Special Section on Gender Equity). Shortening the window of opportunity where people fall into the thought that women and men can perform different duties will decrease immensely the prejudice given to