The Role of Women in History - Assignment Example

It would be so wonderful--would it not? To compare the history of two thousand years, to see what the differences are--between us, who are only mothers, and you, who are mothers and fathers, too. Of course we see, with our birds, that the father is as useful as the mother, almost. But among insects we find him of less importance, sometimes very little. Is it not so with you?" Charlotte Perkins Gilman “Herland, (1915)” Women have played a major role in history. They have been present in society as long as men, and yet have only been so recently, albeit slowly, being recognized and welcomed into the arms of equality in terms of how they are treated, and what their rights are as members of the changing world. The world used to be comprised of men, with women often being pushed to the background as partners, and often as just a few steps up the ladder from being mere objects. Women were the mothers and the sisters and the partners of many of the famous male figures throughout history, but have never really received the equality and rights that was needed for them to maximize their capacities as persons beyond the roles being allotted to them by tradition and culture. 1. What was the role of women at this time?  The Yellow Wallpaper, which Gilman wrote during the 1890’s, shows us a typical picture of the idealized woman as a figure moving within the private sphere of the home, while the man was both a private and a public figure. The woman was domesticated, functions preferably as a mother and as a wife, like the character portrayed in the story. The character was post partum, and was worrying about her inability to perform her duties to both her husband, and her child. She was portrayed as incapacitated, but it would seem that this was because she knew of no other function than to bend to the will of society’s proclaimed master of her person, and that would be her husband. A writer by the name of Jane Swisshelm wrote on an editorial speaking for the women of her time who were constantly portrayed as domestic individuals with no world beyond the home, “We have watched women…doing all sorts of drudgery, against which public opinion had not one word to say, and "thinks I to myself, thinks I," if anyone should propose that these women should take any part in making or executing the laws that regulate the reward and relations of labor, what a lecture he would get from public opinion, about feminine delicacy, female weakness, domestic duties, and all that sort of thing!” This was done in response to a certain Pastor Thomas Wentworth Higginson who wrote that women were made to be inferior to man by stating in his article that women were "constitutionally disqualified for action.” In those times, there had been several attacks on the woman’s person whenever any woman came up who would excel in a field dominated by men. During this period, several articles had come out in the public, openly arguing for and against women’s rights beyond her duties at home. There were already public female figures who were making themselves heard and insisting on the fact that a woman was also a human being, that she is equally able and capable of coexisting with the world outside her home, that this was her right. The Utopian notion of the woman as equally capable members of society were causing an awakening of the great female minds, causing them to stand up for all women, adeptly proclaimed in Gilman’s statement: "The front pattern does move--and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!” (Gilman,387) This statement taken from an article entitled "Rights and Wrongs of Women" captured the famous notion of the ideal woman during the turn of the century: “But the true Woman, for whose ambition a husbands love and her childrens adoration are sufficient, who applies her military instincts to the discipline of her household, and whose legislative faculties exercise themselves in making laws for her nursery; whose intellect has field enough in communion with her husband, and whose heart asks no other honors than his love and admiration; a woman who does not think it a weakness to attend to her toilette, and who does not distain to be beautiful…” The feminist movements that have occurred gradually but progressively paved the way for the women to express themselves through suffrage and the right to work and live as everyone else’s equal. Opportunities have also opened for them such that their talents and skills, which have been unrecognized before, can now be used freely in the open. Jo Freeman, a feminist writer wrote in a pamphlet regarding the woman’s going out of her home and into the world then dominated by male figures: “Opportunities to work, the trend toward smaller families, plus changes in status symbols from a leisured wife at home to a second car and TV, all contributed to a basic alteration of the female labor force from one of primarily single women under 25 to one of married women and mothers over 40. Added to these developments was an increased segregation of the job market, a flooding of traditional female jobs (e.g. teaching and social work) by men, a decrease of women e percentage of the professional and technical jobs by a third and a commensurate decline in their relative income. The result was the creation of a class of highly educated, underemployed women.” Thus, despite of the ongoing constraints at the time, slowly, even the world was changing such that women were finding themselves more empowered than their counterparts from a century before. 2. How were women (and female health issues) viewed in general? Women were subordinates, homemakers, and confined to childbearing and childrearing as her most important activities in life. In a world full of domineering male figures, the woman was a vessel for childbirth, and had several rights only as far as being a wife and a mother to her children. And ironically, her life often ended all too soon because of a lack of healthcare provisions for thei most important task delegated to her. “In 1900…The average life expectancy for an American woman was 48.3 years (48.7 years if she was white and 33.2 years if she was black)… 40 percent of maternal deaths were caused by birth-related infections..” this was taken from an article discussing the women’s health development from the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s discussion on Healthy Steps for Women’s Health. The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story depicting the inner struggle of a classic picture of the female figure during the time when any steering of the woman’s intellectual yearnings to be more than just a subordinate were considered disastrous, and a disease. The woman had no strength of mind to handle problems, and whenever she tried her head at “thinking”, tried to get away from the dreariness of her room surrounded by the strange yellow wallpaper, she was thought to be ill such that she claimed: “…If a physician of high standing, and ones own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency - what is one to do? So I am… absolutely forbidden to "work" until I am well again… I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.  (Gilman, 380) And the best cure for these fantastic whims of her frail mind, these “hysterical tendencies” (Gilman, 380), as was nicely put by the husband of the protagonist, was thought to be best cured by doing nothing, and keeping insipid thoughts so as not to strain her mental capacities to its limits. Gilman has presented a story which is autobiographical in nature, as she had suffered from post partum depression after the birth of her child, and, like the character in her story, had been placed in complete bed rest in order to regain her strength. Being a woman, she was treated as a person who easily gets stressed by major changes in her life, and who is often seen as not always able to cope. The woman was often the one more prone to hysteria, the “female malady” as was coined by author Elaine Showalter. In her book, she tackled the notion that insanity was considered a disease to which the women were more prone. In this alone, it is seen that the frailty of the woman’s body has been equated with her mental capacities. It would seem that the society during her time, would agree that her writing and her fancies had stressed her limited resources thus causing her to fall into such an illness as can be seen in this statement by the main character: “I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal - having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition.”(Gilman, 381) Like the character in the story who tried to get away from the constraints being placed upon her by delving into a detailed account of the most bizarre patterns she saw in the yellow wallpaper she was faced with every single day of her recuperation, Gilman delved deep into her mind. The only difference would be that the character failed to surface back from her newfound imaginings and somehow ended up becoming mad, while the author recognized that this was a path she was prone to taking if she did not decide to overcome the madness threatening to overwhelm her by working her mind instead in the form of writing. As the narrator of the story had done, she wrote in order to release herself from the bondage of her husband’s orders. Diseases of the mind were a thread that was presented as an excuse for the woman’s attempts at breaking away from the constraints placed upon her by her anatomy. “Of course it is only nervousness. It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way!” (Gilman,381). It would almost seem as if the woman, once she was proven to be able to break away from the chains that bound her to the home, once she gets stressed, the fear was constant that she would be unable to handle things on her own, and that she would go mad if she insisted on thinking, which was the man’s job. As the story progressed, we see that the vivid descriptions of other women being imprisoned in the wallpaper shows how the narrator feels about her own state as a prisoner locked away in her own room, away from her child and her functions as a wife and partner. “Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day.  It is always the same shape, only very numerous.  And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern.”(Gilman,385) 3. How does the short story reflect some of the most prominent gender differences/biases reflected in society during this time?  Gender roles were still very much clearly delineated during these times. Men were public figures, they held jobs, earned for their families. Men made the major decisions by themselves, and often the woman’s needs and issues were placed in the background. The women were persistently left in the comfort of home and family, while the men crossed between the private and the public spheres of work and home. Women were the ones created to do housework, rear children, keep their husbands happy and well-fed. If these women did hold jobs, there was noted discrimination on the type of jobs they could hold, and on the wages they earned. Most women have also been raised to believe themselves to be second class citizens, and if they wanted to stand up for what they believe in, there are going to be major obstacles to face, and sadly, their own partners and family were the ones that represented the strongest force they had to face. “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus - but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad.” (Gilman, 380). There was always the issue of how society would look upon a family that had headstrong women among their members. She was taught to look up to her husband, or any dominant male figure in her life. Her upbringing has taught her that if her husband is treating her well, she must always be grateful, especially if what he is doing is, as claimed, for her own good. “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction.. I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more”. (Gilman,380) Men were free to move around, to come home late or never. The women waited at home, taught to be grateful that their husbands are working so hard. “John is away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious...” (Gilman, 381). Women were also supposed to take care of the needs of their men, and to be subservient. That was the purpose that they were raised to believe—that they were to be compassionate and loving wives towards their husbands, and that they are fulfilled only if they are wives and mothers. “I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already!.” (Gilman,381). All in all, the woman reflected in Gilman’s story was the woman that was also in reality, struggling in the real world during the turn of the century, when the woman was already beginning not only to realize she can be more, but has also started doing more. The story presented a situation wherein there was an overcoming of the gender biases, but the implied mental breakdown of the main character in the end despite of her freedom seems to put a relative pause for consideration that perhaps the woman is not also always as strong as she wants to be, that some are so attuned to this repression of themselves that when they fought, the victory can be at the cost of all that they had. In the story, even the character admitted that often it is proving to be quite a feat: “I dont know why I should write this... But I must say what I feel and think in some way - it is such a relief! But the effort is getting to be greater than the relief. ”(Gilman, 384). The society may have remained the same in composition, but the Woman in Gilman’s story has managed to change herself, and used her strength to take her place in society as an equally able member. She has proven her worth and her mettle in different respects, and in doing so, she has also paved the way for more female figures to rise and "Ive got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane. And Ive pulled off most of the paper, so you cant put me back!" (Gilman, 390).  What the story proposes is an added advantage in setting the woman free from constraints about the things she is able to and letting loose what she is capable of, that it is not a disadvantage to man but an advantage to humanity that the women are able and no longer helpless. Gilman also wrote “The Man Made World” that “The major processes of life to-day are quite within the powers of women; women are fulfilling their new relations more and more successfully; gathering new strength, new knowledge, new ideals. The change is upon us; what will it do to men? No harm…” The woman must be given freedom to perform her functions to the fullest in order to realize that she as a woman has something bigger to give to the society by being who she is-- a woman, a mother. And if she is set free, she can perform her duties better than an uneducated version of herself that has had no intellectual stirrings beyond an acceptance of her fate as a woman, helpless and weak. “I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me.  But I find I get pretty tired when I try.  It is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work.”(Gilman, 382). In her book, Our Androcentric World, she pushes for the advantages of bringing up the woman’s status to the level of a man’s equal: “The woman, free at last, intelligent, recognizing her real place and responsibility in life as a human being, will be not less, but more, efficient as a mother. She will understand that, in the line of physical evolution, motherhood is the highest process; and that her work, as a contribution to an improved race, must always involve this great function…”. REFERENCES: 1. DiYanni, Robert. DiYanni, 2nd Edition: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. The Yellow Wallpaper. Pages 379-390. 2. Freeman, Jo. The Women’s Liberation Movement: Its origins, Structures and Ideas. (taken from Jo Freeman.com. Accessed April 23,2010) 3. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Our Androcentric World. (Accessed April 22, 2010) http://www.online-literature.com/charlotte-perkins-gilman/androcentric-culture/14/ 4. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Herland. (taken from Online-literature.com. Accessed on: April 23, 2010). 5. "Rights and Wrongs of Women," Harpers New Monthly Magazine, vol. 9 (June 1854), pp. 76-78. http://www.assumption.edu/whw/RightsAndWrongs.html (Accessed on April 24, 2010) 6. “Healthy Steps for Womens Health” University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. http://www.arfamilies.org/health_nutrition/healthy_steps/disease/womens_health/pdf/healthy_steps_healthy_women.pdf (Accessed on April 26, 2010) 7. Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-  1980. New York: Pantheon Books, 1985.  Read More