The Role of Women in Society According to Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Camus, and Leo Tolstoy
I am beautiful and mysterious. I take joy in the simple pleasures of life. I have no desires higher than appearance and beauty. I am intelligent, but there is no need for me to show my intellect. In fact, showing my intellect would ruin me; it would diminish my sexual desires and defy my beauty. My intelligence would destroy my desirability. I am filled with fear. It is this fear that defines my womanhood; this fear helps me fulfill my womanly role. The darkest parts of my being are kept in check by my fear. If I were to conquer this fear, I would lose the dearest parts of myself. I would no longer chase away worries, lighten burdens, or find joy and grace in day-to-day living. I am passionate and wild. My passions are stirred by love and hate. When love or hatred is stirred up inside of me, I am moved to action. I become fierce and strong, even more barbarous than men. These passions ignite in me that which is sometimes beautiful and sometimes ugly. I can love like no other; I can take revenge like no other. I am seductive. My greatest art is the lie, and I use that art to deceive men. I have the power to make them love me. I hide my intellect, my ugliness, my quest for truth, all in order to deceive the opposite sex. My greatest enemies, however, can be found within my own gender. Watch how I interact with the other members of my fair sex. I ridicule them; I pick at their desires; I detect their faults and detest their beauty. I have a personal contempt for women. I am living proof that woman is most despised by herself. I am dissatisfied with my secondary role. I resent the fact that I am inferior to men. I have in me a fear of them, yet slowly society is trying to drain me of that fear. I long for self-reliance. As a result, I no longer desire the role that used to satisfy me. Not only am I intensely dissatisfied with my role, but I despise what it has done to me. Society has filled me with a dissatisfaction that I desperately want to do something about. Instead, I find myself falling into the stereotypes the world has created for me.
When studying gender roles in history, one will find that females are often depicted in similar ways no matter the era or region of study. Even when comparing the industrialized, early, twentieth century to today’s progressive era, there are striking similarities between female roles. We can see that over the course of the twentieth century, the qualities of loyalty and honesty have decreased in marriages due to the treatment of the two main female roles as depicted literature. The first was the role of the wife. The wife was often portrayed as a housekeeper and a nanny. Dull in appearance, there was no aesthetic beauty to this typical female. The other main role was the “other woman.” The more mysterious and promiscuous character, this woman portrayed the other part of the female population. Both of these types of characters are composites that portrayed the average, disposable female while how they were treated conveyed the general handling of females in the early, twentieth century.
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 structure. 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. Writing based on their own experiences, had it not been for the works of Susan Glaspell, Kate Chopin, and similar feminist authors of their time, we may not have seen a reform movement to improve gender roles in a culture in which women had been overshadowed by men.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Dracula by Bram Stoker, both nineteenth century texts, present women and their roles within society at that time as one of subservience to their male counterparts. Women had no independent means of subsistence, and were obliged to follow the conventions set by men.
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, idea for the equality of women began to ignite a fire within the world. Women wanted to fight oppression and have a chance to experience the same rights as men. However, although suffragettes would not fight fire with fire until a couple of decades later, the idea of escaping societal roles and gain freedom within society and marriage possibly inspired literary works during this time period. These issues of the inequality between men and women in marriage and society plays strong roles in literary works. In “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen, “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman all have something in common: the women are oppressed by the men and society, and ultimately pull away from their societal roles and break free.
Modernism is the term of deviating from the norm. In the early 1900s, modernism influenced women’s role in society by providing more opportunities, jobs, and role models for girls today, in society.
Reading literature, at first, might seem like simple stories. However, in works like William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily,” Katherine Mansfield's “Miss Brill,” and Kate Chopin's “The Storm,” the female protagonists are examples of how society has oppressive expectations of women simply because of their gender.
Fears are an overwhelming aspect of our life from birth until old age. Whether we fear an object such as something lying underneath the bed, a certain figure such as Michael Myers, or an intangible idea such as the future or even death, fear always exists. In several cases, fear leads to a suppression of one’s self and the wonderful ideas that one’s minds may contain. For example, the cure to cancer could very well be trapped inside the mind of someone who has been constantly oppressed and taught to believe that they are not smart enough to get far in life. In “Professions for Women,” author Virginia Woolf persuades her audience, intellectual women, to overcome her insecurities in order to improve her life. To soundly achieve this purpose, Woolf utilizes rhetorical questions, an extended metaphor, and allusion.
”Women have been taught that, for us, the earth is flat, and that if we venture out, we will fall of the edge”(Kramarae, Treichler). This notion is exemplified through both novels, Antigone by Sophocles, and A Doll’s House by Leo Tolstoy. Both novels provide a different look at women, with the two main characters showing qualities that weren’t common in this era such as determination, intelligence, rebellion, hubris, and stubbornness.
The role of women in society has always been an issue throughout the ages and throughout Western Europe, and more or less all over the world. Before the age of the Enlightenment, or the Dark Ages, women were always seen as secondary to men in all aspects. Most reasons were religious while others were just the way life was then. By the late 18th century, at the time of the French Revolution and the continuance of the Enlightenment era, the role of women in society began changing drastically as the lights of the world were now open with this brand new enlightened era. Women began holding jobs, yet still did not receive the same privileges as men. By the time the Industrial Revolution came along in the 19th century many more jobs were opened to a woman in the work force. Reforms began in all areas throughout the 19thand early 20th centuries as women were gaining more and more rights and acceptance into everyday life. By the time the 20th century rolled around and throughout, no longer was it thought that women belonged in the home (although few still feel that way), yet many women began serving professional jobs as doctors, lawyers, and politicians. Now today some of the most successful people in the business world are women, as women have even began there own companies.
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.
Portraying the characters rejection to conformity, American literature illustrates the distinctive following of one's own standards. From what has been analyzed previously, the authors are trying to display a message of change through the characters words and actions. Many times it is apparent that the characters are in there times of most comfort when they are acting in such that makes them their own being, stepping aside from the standards of the rest of society. Writers try to express the importance of stepping outside of that comfort zone in order to grow and develop as a human being. How will one ever know who they are if they conform to be what everyone is told to be? The biggest advocate of rejecting the norms of America is Chris McCandless.
What I have discussed are two women authors that have faced trials in their lifetimes pertaining to feminism that society had forced upon them. We are given insight into the ways and values of their time and how these experiences influenced their writings. In conclusion, we can see how societal issues concerning the roles of women have differed in principles, but remain the same in the way that there is an unbroken tradition regarding how men and women differ in their roles as well as their perceived rights. Female writers and advocates of women’s rights show these influences with Mary Wollstonecraft using her strong personality and direct writings and Virginia Woolf using her narratives, and both giving us insight to the struggles of an ongoing debate.
Women have not always had the same privileges as men. In the early days, men were classified to be more dominant. In Jonathon Swifts, A Modest Proposal, women were not allowed to have a job and were considered property, the men were the ones that had the jobs and supported the family. In the United States, it was not until 1920 for women to have the right to vote. Throughout time women have increased their role in society. Now, women have the opportunity to work nearly everywhere and hold nearly every position. Christine de Pisan discusses in The Book of the City of Ladies, about the inequalities in jobs between men and women. The role of women in society has changed a lot over time and is still continuing to change. In Betty Friedans, The Feminine Mystique, she writes about how women should be more than just a mother or wife, she also writes about the evolution of how the role of women has increased in freedom in society.
Do you believe that women of this present generation have always received the same level of respect as they receive now? Today, women are treated exceptionally well as compared to their counterparts in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and treated even better than those in the very early years of America. Women in the past were restricted from freedoms and rights; their individuality was stripped and they were constantly forced to meet the constraining view of a “traditional” America. In contrast, women of modern America are granted a level of recognition and respect unexplored by American women of previous generations.
Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional or philosophical dissertation. It helps to explain the main nature of gender inequality. It further explains the social roles of women in the society such as education, communication, philosophy, sociology and so on (Chodrow, Nancy 1991).