Ernest Hemingway's Impact On American Women

As the United States was continuing recovering from the Civil War and embracing the expansion of the West, industrialization, immigration and the growth of cities, women’s roles in America were changing by the transformation of this new society. During the period of 1865-1912, women found themselves challenging to break the political structure, power holders, cultural practices and beliefs in their “male” dominated world.

Women have long been fighting for their right to be seen as equal to men. Even to this day, women continue to fight for their rights, things such as the right to non-gender discriminatory wages. While there may be some arguments over the state of gender equality in the modern world, it is undeniable that there have been great strides made toward recognizing the female 's worth in the workforce and as a human being. Despite these strides, however, things are still not yet ideal for women and many of the issues females face today are the very same issues that have been plaguing them for decades. While it is unfortunate the oppression of women has been so long-lived, the length of that exposure has thankfully enabled many talented writers to both lament over the fact and emphasize the need for gender equality.

While both the “Invisible Man” and “The House of Mirth” were written near the same time frame, they were written in differing perspectives, reflecting not only social classes but also gender roles of the time period. At the time these books were written, men and women had very different roles in society. Women were in the midst of a long arduous battle of the women suffrage movement and as they gained ground in this fight the gender roles started to change along with the country: “Westward expansion also demanded that many women step outside prescribed gender roles and perform “men’s” work on the frontier” (Jolliffe 1). Men, on the other hand, had a battle of their own trying to defend their masculinity during the movement of women into new social ranks, “masculinity in the United States is certain only in its uncertainty; its stability and sense of well-being depend on a frantic drive to control its environment.” (Stryffeler 4) The struggles of this dynamic time period are expressed through the eyes of these two authors giving readers an idea of how women were viewed differently from men surrounding the gender and social issues that dominated history.

Two-hundred years is a sizeable gap of time that allows plenty of room for change. American society had been rapidly changing from the early seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century, but despite this, the roles and rights of women have remained locked in place. There were many factors to consider as to why women were not allowed to flourish in their time and exceed these boundaries, and while some accepted it, there were many that opposed and faced these difficulties head on. Two female authors, one from colonial times, and one from nineteenth century America, have written about the obstacles and misogyny they’ve overcome in a male dominated literary career. Despite the two-hundred-year gap between the lives of Margaret Fuller and Anne Bradstreet, they both face issues regarding the static stereotype that women are literarily inferior and subservient handmaids to men.

The men’s word choice and tone when speaking to Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale comes across as demeaning and belittling. For example, when the men walk in on the women talking about Mrs. Wright’s quilt, the sheriff scoffs, “They wonder if she was going to quilt it or knot it!” (Glaspell 601). Although the men limit the women to the “trifles” of housework and childcare, they still continue to mock them for delighting in those few things they are allowed. By continuously ridiculing their character and intelligence, the men are creating an oppressive state for the women to live in. They abuse their roles in the lives of their wives and ultimately spoil the concept of a happy marriage, creating tension and conflict between the men and women of their

Women’s roles in the American household had been the same since the discovery of America to 1848. Women in the simplest of terms were meant to run the household, raise the children, cook, clean, etc. This began changing in 1848 when women wanted to break free from the social norms and develop a social role outside of the household. Women felt that their lives would be completely transformed if they earned the right to vote; once they earned the vote then they would earn equality across the board. This desire for social change began boiling many years before 1848 when women began reading and writing domestic novels expressing anger towards women’s dependency on men. They began attending women’s academies and formed ladies’ benevolent societies where they pursued their own personal interest and activities. Then in 1848 approximately 200 women gathered together to hold the first women’s rights convention in the United States. This convention discussed the social, civil, religious condition and rights of women. There would go on to be 10 National Women’s Rights Conventions and The National Women’s Suffrage Association along with the National Women’s Party. “Although social change was a constant in the American Republic, women were expected to be the stable unchanging element in a changing world.” Although the Women's rights movement allowed the equal treatment of men and women it did cause so much pain for so many women. The Women's rights movement created equality and justice,

Throughout the 19th century in America, men and women were expected to fill different spheres of society, the men went off to work and the women and children stayed in the home. New ideals of what true womanhood looked like were published in many journals, newspapers, and magazines, specifically, The Young Lady’s Book: A Manual of Elegant Recreations, Exercises, and Pursuits, which was written for the purpose of giving guidelines of the woman’s standard role in society. It was not until 1848 that women stood up for their rights and the Declaration of Sentiments was drafted, demanding equality and independence. Both of these documents reflected the time period in which they were written and created some opposing reactions in women with the different

Women have played an important role in American literature. Unfortunately, this role was often negative, without cause to be so. Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby are examples of American literature in which women are needlessly vilified.

The rights and freedoms that women enjoy today did not come without struggle, and currently there is nowhere in the world women are treated equally to men. Henceforth the 17th hundreds women have been trying to affirm their position in the fabric of America. Early public policies treated wives and mothers as wards of their husbands and women in general were not considered citizens under the Constitution of the United States, the founding document referred of “men created equal”. Women were oppressed by gender and could not legally acquire land ownership, enter into contracts, initiate legal actions, acquire bank loans and wives that worked, their husbands controlled their money. Furthermore, women were barred from higher education, many professions and, public offices according to

The men?s prejudice is blatant and although it was easy for Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters to pick up on it, they react to it in a variety of ways. Defensively, Mrs. Hale, replies rigidly to the County Attorney?s remark by stating that "there?s a great deal of work to be done on a farm," (958) offering an excuse for Minnie?s lapse in cleaning. Later, he brushes her off when she explains that John Wright was a grim man. To the County Attorney, the women are just there to collect personal items for Minnie, they are not going to give him any valuable insight into the murder. To their credit, the women do not force their thoughts or feelings on the men when biased statements are made in their direction. They hold back and discuss the remarks later after the men go upstairs. Mrs. Peters observes that "Mr. Henderson is awful sarcastic in a speech and he?ll make fun of her sayin? she didn?t wake up" (960). The fact that she believes the men would laugh if they heard the two women discussing the dead canary reveals how sure she is that the men think of them as concerned with the

Looking back on American history, women have many times been belittled by men. This can be clearly seen in early American life; women were unable to own property and were reliant on their husbands. “Trifles”, a play by Susan Glaspell, highlights the absurd attitude men had, and even still do have, toward women. The women of this story are to stay and tidy around the house while the men are out investigating the murder of Mr. Wright. It is in doing the seemingly menial task the women discover Mrs. Wright’s motive to kill; a detail the men have yet to figure out.

Trapeze. Hemingway graduated in the spring of 1917 and instead of going to college the

Throughout history, women have been seen in many different lights. From a woman’s perspective she is strong, smart, helpful and equal to men. In the eyes of men, she is seen as the weaker being, the housewife, and the caretaker. By looking at the following pieces of writing, one can see that through the centuries, women have struggled to break out of the mold that man had put her in and make themselves known in society as important.