Gender Roles In 'OPioneers' By Wila Cather And Herland

Gender roles have been a hotly debated topic in the most recent years, especially the role of women in society. Women have had set expectations that they are believed to conform to, which is shown in many pieces of film and literature. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald describes the life of a man in the upper class in the 1920’s, as well as women in the 1920’s. The movie The Princess Bride, written by William Goldman, visually explains the treatment and expectations of women, and especially focuses on the “damsel in distress” stereotype.. Roxane Gay’s “Bad Feminist” explains the stereotypes against women and ways women can come together and fight these constraints. Based on these sources, societal expectations take away from each individual’s identity, forcing women to conform to society's standards. In order to fight against these expectations, women have banded together and formed movements against these standards.

Cather rejected the traditional idea of separation of male and female roles, and she uses her novels…as a way of combating American society and its traditional definition of gender roles…Ultimately, I would suggest that Cather argues for a more fluid way of defining male and female roles, and that she asserts self-definition from both the pages of her novels and the pages of her own life.

Gender roles have played a major part in society. According to the book “The Psyche of Feminism” “A gender role is a theoretical construct in the social sciences that refers to a set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate

Whether it is the past or the present, there have always been gender roles in society. In most homes, it is the woman’s responsibility to take care of the house. This includes cleaning, meal preparations, raising and taking care of the children as well as the husband. Compared to the men who take care of the more physical activities, such as yard work. It was known throughout many years that it was a woman’s responsibility to stay in the house while the man would go out and look for work to provide money for his family. Although the intensity of gender roles has changed, it still exists.

Although women in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries faced oppression and unequal treatment, some people strove to change common perspectives on the feminine sex. John Stuart Mill, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Virginia Woolf were able to reach out to the world, through their literature, and help change the views that society held towards women and their roles within its structure. During the Victorian era, women were bound to domestic roles and were very seldom allowed to seek other positions. Most men and many women felt that if women were allowed to pursue interests, outside traditional areas of placement that they would be unable to be an attentive

Sociologists have extensively studied the gender gap within the STEM field, while most theorists focus on gender socialization to explain this phenomenon, recently there has been a push to emphasize a more intersectional approach. As stated earlier gender socialization is “ the process of learning the social expectations and attitudes associated with one’s sex” (Chegg). It is built into our culture and it shapes how our society acts. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent writer who is now seen as a sociologist, who focused in on traditional gender roles and the effect they have on society. Her work Women and Economics looks at how women’s roles in society are not seen as valuable or economically beneficial to society. She states, “Economic progress, however is almost exclusively masculine” (Gilman 1898: 200). As well as stating, “ The male human being is thousands of years in advance of the female in economic status” (Gilman 1898: 200). These quotes show that men are and have been superior to women in an economic stance. Gilman also touched on the idea that, “the labor now performed by the men could not be performed by the women without generations of effort and adaptation” (Gilman 1898: 200). Meaning that even if women were to take over men’s jobs, they would need a lot of time and change to achieve the productivity that men can achieve. This all stems from the ideas that women are not to be working in male dominated jobs, they should be cooking and cleaning. These

of the expectations of women and how each woman has to fit a certain role as a

The 1890’s were an era of rapid social change in regards to women’s rights. In 1893, Colorado was the first state granting women the right to vote with Utah and Idaho following soon after in 1896. This soon set momentum towards of ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. It was in 1899 the Kate Chopin published The Awakening, a novel telling the tale of a suppressed mother, Edna Pontellier, and her desire for something more in her life. Literary scholars consider Chopin’s The Awakening as a subtle yet effective portrayal of women of the late 19th century and consider it as an important piece of the feminism movement. Throughout the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, women had felt controlled by men and the

   Recent history boldly notes the protests and political unrest surrounding the Vietnam Conflict during the 1960s and 70s. However, equally important in this era are the women who pushed for gender role reevaluation and publicly rebelled against the established social norm of a woman's "place." Although Alice Munro may not have been burning her bra on the courthouse steps, threads of a feminist influence can be found in "Boys and Girls." Munro's main character, a girl probably modeled after Munro's own childhood experiences on an Ontario farm, faces her awakening body and the challenge of developing her social identity in a man's world. "The girl," an unnamed character, acts as

I agree with you that Charlotte Perkins Gilman's text illustrated how society categorizes different gender roles, which made it seemed like one can't do things the other gender can. This is not true because each person, despite whether they are male or female, has the potentials to achieve the goals they set themselves toward. In my response, I put that women can also have the knowledge and skills to become successful if equal chances, such as job opportunities, having a voice in political decisions, etc, are given to them similar to the males. Just like men, women can build a reputation where they can accomplish goals and have personal development through the experiences they faced in life. Based on your life experience example, I can tell

Gender Inequality is when men and women are separated by the belief that one gender is superior to the other in forms that deny full participation or restrictions to one’s ability to live an equal life. Ever since the dawn of time there has been one gender superior to the other and to this day there are still gender differences in the political, economical and physical life of a male versus a female. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is one theorist that I chose to help explain this trend of males having power over women. Gilman was an evolutionist theorist; her point of view helps me explain how gender inequality came about and how women are viewed during the late

The definition of gender roles is a set of societal norms dictating what types of behavior is generally considered acceptable based on the gender of a person. Additionally, if you don’t seem to accept this standard, there can be huge consequences. For example, in India, women are viewed as a burden and a “extra mouth to feed.” Her status promotes the idea that men can treat them in a subdued manner. If they don’t comply to these requirements, then a woman is murdered by her husband or his family by being set alight by a flammable liquid, which is usually known as bride burning. Herland, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, also uncovers the harsh inequality of women. Gender roles shouldn’t be real and they were forced on us by society.

her father tries to change who she is and force her into a gender role

Throughout many decades women have been struggling to be equal to men, both at home and in the work place. Women have come a long way and are certainly fighting to gain that equality, but gender roles are very important in our society. They have become important in life from birth, and society continues to push these gender roles. The treatment of the male gender is very different from that of the female, and this issue has become very important to me, as a woman. As children we learn and adapt to specific gender roles, and as we grow they become more evident and more important to our role in a society. There is a lot of discrimination against the female gender. Carol Gilligan argued that

Another female character in the poem is Wealhtheow, and without a doubt we notice that she is a female who is respected and admired, being the wife of King Hrothgar, Queen of the Danes: “Applause filled the hall./Then Wealhtheow pronounce in the presence of the company” (1214-1215). There is a great contrast between Grendel’s mother and Wealhtheow.