Gender Roles and the Womans Place in The Spoils of Poynton - Essay Example

Education for women has therefore opened up more employment opportunities for them in virtually all professionals that were initially dominated by men.

This access to education and employment has also changed the role of women in the family with more women now playing a much bigger role in the public sphere and not being exclusively restricted to the household. The goal of this paper is thus to examine the gender role changes that have occurred over time in education, the workplace, and the family including the driving forces that have necessitated these changes. In 1750, patriarchy was the main organizing principle of European life. Patriarchy (derived from Greek roots meaning “father and rule”) was a system characteristic of social and political systems in which fathers or father figures exercised ultimate authority (Sanborn and Jimm 2).

In the same perspective, Jackson adds that women were subordinate to men in the most diverse economic, political, and cultural conditions for millennia. In such circumstances, men everywhere held power and status over women and people believed that men’s dominance was a natural and unchangeable part of life. In addition, Jackson has further pointed out that in the mid-nineteenth century, fewer people perceived equality between men and women to be desirable or even possible (1). The patriarchal society was a representation of grandeur and power that intimidated women and those of the low class.

Such a society was a characteristic of the Victorian era where The Spoils of Poynton was set. This power and greatness have been illustrated by the contrasts between the estate at Poynton and The Ricks in The Spoils of Poynton. The Ricks is perhaps a feminine construct that stands in contrast to the landed estate of Poynton. While Poynton may symbolize the monument of the Victorian Patriarchy that magnified greatness and might, The Ricks is a humble setting that may be likened to the submissiveness of women in a Patriarchal society.

In comparison, The Ricks is illustrated as being faded and melancholy while Poynton is sophisticated and grand. In addition, Mrs. Gareth observes that the entrance to the rooms at The Ricks is like the holes of rabbit hutches compared to that at Poynton which is characteristic of high double leaves. Such a patriarchal system created separate spheres between men and women. During the Victorian era, Benthin argues that the public and private spheres were identified with ideas of gender so that the life of a woman in Britain revolved around the private sphere of the house, the family, and motherhood (2).

Jackson indicates that these spheres dominated the history of gender inequality for several decades. For this case, Jackson notes that women were identified with the household and the maintenance of family life while their male counterparts were associated with income-generating employment and public life (1). These spheres flourished on the basis that the forms of business, government, schools, and families seemed to fit perfectly well with the existing divisions between women's and men’s roles.