Study Of Women in America - Essay Example

The adjective liminal is derived from the word liminality which means to be in a situation where there is a sensory threshold of some kind. In our case, we shall focus on how these three women were able to cope with the challenges that accompanied the threshold situation they were in on whether to challenge the norms and expectations the society had for the women or abide by them. The contact period, which saw the meeting of the British and the North Eastern Native Americans, resulted in a huge clash between the ideas concerning the role of the men and the women in the society.

The British cultures and norms were generally very gender biased. Women were not given an opportunity to participate in the politics of the country. They had been secluded to being participants of the domestic realm only in the society (Ulrich, 1991). The men basically controlled everything that happened in the society and made the decisions. Women were made to take a back seat as all these was going on. This was in contrast to the Native American system on gender roles. In the Native American system, the women were allowed to fully participate and take up major roles in the politics of the tribe. . This was a political conspiracy in which she went against the Indian traditions and placed her head upon John Smith’s when her father was about to execute him with a war club.

To the eyes of the British, she was the ideal example of a Native American. When she married John Smith, this was Pocahonta’s way of taking charge of the liminal situation that she was in. she did not sit back and allow the British norms to prevent her from marrying the man that she loved. Her love for John Smith made her take charge and she broke the norms thus making it possible for an interracial marriage to happen. Pocahontas was also able to challenge the English common law by engaging herself in the trade and participating in activities that uplifted her status as a woman in the society (Allen, 2004).

Just like Pocahontas, Mary (White) Rowlandson was another woman who did not allow her liminal situation to take charge of how she conducted her lifestyle. During her time, the Native Americans believed that writing was a man’s job. They did not expect the women to indulge themselves in this field. After being captures by the Native Indiana and held hostage for eleven weeks, Rowlandson decided to write a book after her release to cover her ordeals during the capture. Mary Rowlandson decided to def all odds and went ahead to publish her book which spoke of the difficulties that the women had got to face in a male dominated society.

Her book was reprinted four times within a short period of time. It was the first American written bestseller (Kerber, De Hart, and Dayton, 2011). With the help of her book, Mary Rowlandson was able to stand tall and bring to light the liminal conditions that the women were faced with as a result of oppressed cultural treatment they were subjected to (Kerber,