The Shifting Role of Women: A Journey from the Old Womanhood to the Neo-Womanhood - Essay Example

of the of the The Shifting Role of Women: A Journey from the “Old” Womanhood to the Neo-womanhood in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” Before the twentieth century, it was the male-dominated society that designated and defined the functions of women. While all women were affected negatively by this situation, it was the majority of the middle class women who agonized. Men carried out a conceptual jail that endangered and quieted women. This philosophy, which is termed as the Cult of Domesticity, validates the persecution and abuse of women (Keister 228). Struggling under the ostensible kindness and compassion of the Cult of Domesticity (Keister 228), women were confined in the home or private area, a domestic supervising to the needs of the family. In addition, women were necessitated to stay righteous and chaste even in marriage, with their conduct staying to be one of simplicity and diffidence. Religious devoutness and obedience were principles that were more secondary elements of the philosophy, although, still, both were brought about and a fragment of the philosophy of true womanhood. Women were classified as emotional slaves whose beings were bestowed to the well-being of home and family in the persistence of the constancy and steadiness of the society (10). It is going against the grain of the unbelievable tension put forward by men to keep authority that women had to stir up and disconcert. Women struggled to remove the traditional description of womens societal functions from power. They had undermined the philosophy pushed toward them, thereby allowing a reinvention and redefinition that caused the birth of the new womanhood. Gilman, in his short story entitled "The Yellow Wallpaper,” portrayed Gilmans fight to shake off the restraints of the male-dominated society in order to write. The story is representative of the cult of domesticity, which fastens women to the home and family. The old perception of women as tenders of a husband and children took the plight of womanhood through centuries of struggle brought about by systematic subordination. As in the case of Gilman, women were limited to the established limits that men created. Women are acclimatized to agree to take these restrictions and stay in place, in the private domain; Welter states, “If anyone, male or female, dared to tamper with the complex virtues which made up True Womanhood, he was dammed immediately as the enemy of God, of civilization, and of the Republic” (372). Stepping further than "The Yellow Wallpaper", women disobeyed the tainted and dishonoured authority that men exercised over women, dripped their imprisonment, and made for themselves a new philosophical role, something that comprised their admission into the public arena or even in the market place. These were the methods that men employed to protect and assure the inactiveness and submissiveness of women. Religion would appease any longing or craving that could instigate a non-conformity from these established standards; although, obedience suggested susceptibility and reliance on the patriarchal controller (Welter 373).The awe-inspiring, godly manner of the medical profession in "The Yellow Wallpaper" reveals this haughtiness. The "rest" remedy that Dr. Mitchell prescribed, which is stated in the story, indicates mens criticizing attitudes. His method of pure rest as a cure necessitates complete rest, forced feeding, and segregation (Ellenberger 244). Dr. Mitchell, a neurosurgeon with specialty in the nervous diseases of women, explained on his certainty over womens nervous disorders and ailments when he stated, "American woman is, to speak plainly, too often physically unfit for her duties as woman, and is perhaps of all civilized females the least qualified to undertake those weightier tasks which tax so heavily the nervous system of man. She is not fairly up to what nature asks from her as wife and mother. How will she sustain herself under the pressure of those yet more exacting duties which nowadays she is eager to share with the man?" (Winslow 130). Conversely, the male zone of society relished the luxury of the freedom of movement. Men gained advantages from not just the private sphere, but they were likewise permitted to leave and join the public domain unrestricted. They got care and nurturing from the women within the private ground. The public domain was the venue where men relished the clash stimulated in the open market through which they collected their individuality and uniqueness. In the public domain, men made choices that improved their individual positions and roles in society, while abusing womens biological structure and utilizing blackmail in order to make women unable to mobilize themselves. Women were not able to go out into the public arena where they thought they did not belong because they were held imprisoned by the men. The Cult of Domesticity intentionally did not recognized the rising work force of women, and "did not sanction professionalism and careerism for women... “(Papke 12). Women were classified as emotional slaves whose beings were bestowed to the well-being of home and family in the persistence of the constancy and steadiness of the society (Papke 10). It is going against the grain of the unbelievable tension put forward by men to keep authority that women had to stir up and disconcert. Women struggled to remove the traditional description of womens societal functions from power. They had undermined the philosophy pushed toward them, thereby allowing a reinvention and redefinition that caused the birth of the new womanhood. Gilman, in his short story entitled "The Yellow Wallpaper,” portrayed Gilmans fight to shake off the restraints of the male-dominated society in order to write. The story is representative of the cult of domesticity, which fastens women to the home and family. The old perception of women as tenders of a husband and children took the plight of womanhood through centuries of struggle brought about by systematic subordination. As in the case of Gilman, women were limited to the established limits that men created. Women are acclimatized to agree to take these restrictions and stay in place, in the private domain; Welter states, “If anyone, male or female, dared to tamper with the complex virtues which made up True Womanhood, he was dammed immediately as the enemy of God, of civilization, and of the Republic” (372). Stepping further than "The Yellow Wallpaper", women disobeyed the tainted and dishonored authority that men exercised over women, dripped their imprisonment, and made for themselves a new philosophical role, something that comprised their admission into the public arena or even in the market place. In the countenance of the pervasiveness of discrimination and extreme subordination of women, and the so-called "masculine self-interest" (Roland and Harris 78), there is a strong contention that women were entitled to relish the same level of freedom that men enjoyed, and were entitled to the same self-possession as men...” (Lipman and Blumen 136). The prevailing development on the redefinition of the womens roles in the society caused the enabling of women to serve as teachers for their children, but would be ways for expanding their domain beyond the familiar sphere and into the place of work (136). This was the focal point of the establishment of the plan for improving education among women. The contemporary description of womens roles in the society was cemented during the Seneca Falls Convention, which took place in 1848. This has eased and allowed the redefinition and movement towards establishing new functions of women in the society. Many women, including professionals, vent out the struggle they had to go through in order to rid the subordinating effects of the heavily patriarchal notions of women. It has immobilized them and left them incarcerated within the bounds of familial domain (Giele 48). Women like those depicted by Gilman in "The Yellow Wallpaper" came to the fore and threw down the gauntlet of patriarchal ideologies. Women could go above the limitations of the ideology of the cult of domesticity. The presence of marriage, in which men take the leading role and exercised control, put women at the forbearance of their male complement. The tainted philosophy of the cult of domesticity enabled the culprits to be the recipients while requiring womens involvement and collaboration in the disparagement of self. Such women enabled the surfacing from the private and secluded domain a real one, in spite of the apparent disablement of the natural science of femininity. Consequently, the idealizing of womans role in the family and home separated women, excepting them from the public sphere turned out to be a bygone. Liberated from the enchainment of the ideology related to the institution of marriage, women grabbed the right to self-affirmation. Responding to oppression, women rebelled against the employment of feminine gender roles. Being a woman could not be construed and interpreted by the cult of domesticity anymore. Instead, it has now expanded on the self-formation of the enlargement of women into the public arena and the advent of the modern definition of womanhood. Works Cited Ellenberger, Henri. The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry. New York: Basic Books, 2008. Print. Giele, Janet Zollinger. Two Paths to Women’s Equality: Temperance, Suffrage, and the Origins of Modern Feminism. New York: Twayne, 1995. Keister, Lisa. Inequality: A Contemporary Approach to Race, Class, and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Print. Lipman-Blumen, Jean. Gender Roles and Power. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1984. Mitchell, Weir S. “Wear and Tear, or Hints for the Overworked.” Charlotte Perkins Gilman: “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Ed. Dale M. Bauer. Boston: Belford Books, 1998. 134-141. Papke, Mary E. Verging on the Abyss: The Social Fiction of Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton. New York: Greenwood P, 1995. Roland, Alan, and Barbara Harris. Career and Motherhood: Struggles for a New Identity. New York: Human Sciences P, 1979. Welter, Barbara. “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860.” The American Family in Social Historical Perspective. Ed. Michael Gordon. New York: St. Martin’s P, 1978. 373-392. Winslow, Kenelm. The Home Medical Library. Maryland: Wildside Press, 2009. Print. Read More