Confrontation of Gender Roles in the Works of Mill, Tennyson, and Woolf

This critical textual analysis will examine feminine identity and the essentialistic ideas of the late nineteenth century between men and women as elaborated by Kaplan and Rogers in “Essentialisms, Determinisms. It will include an analysis of theories regarding dichotomies of biological determinism and cranial classification. Essentialism argues that there are categories of objects and genres that have essential characteristics, notwithstanding individual variation, and that these essential characteristics define the objects and genres to an extent that they reveal truth (Kaplan and Rogers 27). Determinism is a theory or in some cases a doctrine. “Nature” has been the historical burden women have faced. It is not the only such burden, but it has been the largest and the heaviest. Psychological and social implications of essentialist beliefs create gender segregation, inequality, and is often used to excuse gender-based biases in society. These types of ideas are often used as a justification for misogynistic and essentialistic systems in society.

During the Victorian era, gender roles became separated and entered into different spheres that only interacted at specific moments. Women were considered physically weaker yet morally superior to men, which meant that they were best suited to the domestic sphere. Not only

Women are depicted Masculine to characterize how strong they are. In Herland, women have the physical feature of short functional hair and no appealing curves as describe in this passage:

In the beginning of the work, Mill explicitly argues against the belief that women are not equal to men. He criticizes the legal subordination of the women to men and says that it is one of the greatest hindrances to human improvement. (Mill, 196) Based on this criticism, Mill seeks to delegitimize the gender hierarchy in place during his time. He argues that the subjugation of women rests solely on theory, as no other gender hierarchies have ever been tried. He then says that the subjugation of women did not occur as a result of purposeful deliberation about what would benefit society at large. (Mill, 197) Mill says that the subjugation of women occurred solely because women were in a state of bondage to men from the conception of humankind. (Mill, 197) Finally, Mill explains that laws and political systems recognize people’s relationships with one another and then convert what is a physical fact into a legal right. (Mill, 197) Mill’s arguments show his ability to thoroughly analyze the origins of women’s subjugation and his desire to change them. Mill recognizes the weakness of the arguments in favor of women’s subjugation. He also recognizes that the subjugation of an entire sex equates to an inefficient society. Being attuned to the social realities of women at the time allowed Mill to encourage more egalitarian relations between men and

He feels that because women have been in this position for so many years, it would feel irregular to deviate from it. “The subjection of women to men being a universal custom, any departure from it quite naturally appears unnatural” (Mill 1157). As he continues, he reveals his thoughts on the matter to the reader: “this relic of the past is discordant with the future, and must necessarily disappear” (Mill 1159). Mill explores many aspects of the issue. He attempts to uncover the differences between the sexes to provide maybe another solution to the problem, but to no avail, “nothing final can be known” (Mill 1162); nothing is as strongly stated as when he places the blame on custom. Later in his essay, while exploring the systems of past societies, he comes to the same conclusion as earlier. Only this time, he states that there has been some improvement in the system as time went by; however, equality has not yet been reached. He believes that the small increase in power over time is enough to suggest that equality is the solution: “Through all…human history, the condition of women has been approaching nearer to equality with men. This does not itself prove that the assimilation must go on to complete equality; but it assuredly affords some presumption that such is the case” (Mill 1160). This quote is yet another contribution to the blame of custom. In the past, societies lacked equality

Virginia Woolf sheds a light on the starch contrast of a woman’s designated experience involved with education compared to that of a man’s with her pieces that detail contrasting dining experiences at Oxford University in the 1920s. While she lavishly details her venture eating in the men’s dining hall, she specifically describes her time in the women’s dining hall blandly and with no luster. Woolf’s syntax and diction are meant not just to contrast the two dining conditions; but also to show the distinction in the way gender roles and societal misogyny sets up boundaries and different conditions for men and women in an educational setting.

Virginia Woolf uses “A Room of One’s Own” to convey her thoughts regarding how women in the 16th century were deprived of opportunities to put forward their literary work. Money and privacy were the two things every woman required, even then being faced with many difficulties on how to openly express themselves and not get ridiculed for it. The author believes that society was indifferent towards women creativity, whom were considered inferior to men in every aspect.

The role that men and women plays in each other lives and society is as wide today as it’s been since the beginning of time. For reasons unbeknownst to us, we are a species of human male and female made, but for totally different purposes in this world. Who determines who should be better or worse? Who determines who should be stronger or weaker? That’s the big elephant in the room that no one has fairly answered yet, but for some reason we have aligned to an answer because of this reason. Men uses their physical and genetic make-up differences between a man and a woman to argue why a woman is subordinate to them.

Before the 19th century women suffered a great deal of abhorrence, relegation, discrimination and subjugation. The traditional woman roles were limited to the categorical imperatives of society. Women lacked equality and humanistic significance based on these roles as a domesticated woman. The types of jobs accessible were being a housewife, producing children, being maids, a secretary, and anything else considered an inferior occupation subjected under the dominated males, particularly in the European and American societies. The sheer scope of American social patterns and local policies separated men and women; but the ones that suffered the consequences of those outlooks were women. There was the recurrent mental and physical maltreatment and ill-willed abuse, which was complicated for women to oppose because society conditioned women to be vulnerable. Additionally, perhaps many women feared the possible consequences to their opposition, such as total isolation from male members of the family, possible religious punishment, and social shunning. Fortunately, there was a revolutionary movement that altered the benign traditional roles that brought much profit, which enabled women to step out of the traditional gender roles and into androgynous roles; that movement was worldly known as the Enlightenment era.

Woolf created many writings that still can be considered important to how women should be viewed equal to men. Without Woolf’s writings, the path for gender equality would have been harder to set in motion, due to her bringing the discrimination of women to the attention of society.

However, not all of Mill’s positions on feminism have come to be. He was very strong in his opinion that women should have equal opportunities in society, and well that hasn’t happened yet. Currently men occupy the top rungs of every industry in the world, and women only hold 1 in 4 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) jobs. Women are vastly underrepresented in the work force and that is something that definitely needs to change. One of the arguments against this is that women aren’t being prevented from holding more high profile careers, they are just choosing not to. This is true, but that doesn’t take all aspects into consideration. From a young age girls are pushed to stay within their gender roles, and that does not include any STEM activities, just cooking and playing dolls. I’ve experienced this myself, as I had wanted to major in Political Science but was told not to because it would be too challenging for me. When I ultimately decided upon social work (not because it was easier, but because it is something I see myself happier with), I was actually told that “it was good I decided to settle and take a woman’s job.”

The roles of women have changed over the course of history. Beginning at the Romantic period, women in this time period were given little to no rights. This resulted in men treating women with no respect and suffering greatly. By the Victorian era, women became exhausted with receiving terrible treatment and seen as inferior to men, and began to view themselves as capable of being independent and deserving as equal status to men.

In John Mill's book, 'The Subjection of Women', Mill argues for female equality in a Victorian society that denied women many social and political rights. Many people contributed to the argument on gender roles during the Victorian age. John Mill was a major figure throughout this age and debate. He did not believe women should be treated as subordinate and unable to function without a male. Mill's book looked at women's status and sought out equality. He explains that, "... The legal subordination of one sex to another – is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement; and that it ought to be replaced by a system of perfect equality, admitting no power

Lorber also states, "Societies vary in the extent of inequality in the social status of their women and men members, but where there is inequality, the status "woman" (and its attendant behavior and the role allocations) is usually held in lesser esteem than the status "man" (Lorber, Kirk & Okazawa-Rey, 1991, p.67). Andrea 's experiences

In this essay Mill admits the difficulty of achieving this, but defends his ideas by showing that the position of authority held by men is not a result of the comparison of several kinds of systems being tried and its having been found to be the best system, but that it is the only system that has ever been tried. As a result, one cannot not use past experience to say that women are incapable of being in positions of authority. In this essay Mill states,