Summary Of For A Modest Fee

Throughout this course, we learned that women’s studies originated as a concern at the time that “women and men noticed the absence, misrepresentation, and trivialization of women [in addition to] the ways women were systematically excluded from many positions of power and authority” (Shaw, Lee 1). In the past, men had more privileges than women. Women have battled for centuries against certain patterns of inadequacy that all women experience. Every culture and customs has divergent female

Ann Marie Low’s diary opens in 1927 when she is a teenager living with her family on a stock farm in southeastern North Dakota. Low’s diary tells the story of her family's struggle to maintain a way of life, keeping their farm, and educate their children. She discusses her family and friends, descendants of homesteaders, through the next ten years, a time when entire communities lost their homes to mortgages and to government recovery programs. Low’s faces economic hardship, unfortunate family circumstances, and the restrictions that society had placed on women. Low's diary is about life in during the Dust Bowl, and Great Depression.

“As such, what is perceived as ‘real’ regarding gender roles is actually a manifestation of certain rules and expectations put on all of us by the macro gendered power structure” (2013, p. 319). Hence, this power structure creates a patriarchal culture that values all things masculine and devalues all things feminine (Johnson, 2013). Thereby, in valuing masculinity, a man is “a perfect specimen of muscles and fearlessness and daring” (Blow, 2013, p. 404). In addition, the patriarchal culture highlights the importance of the husband’s career and downplays the secondary role of the wife in the family (2013). Unfortunately, all members of society, male and female, participate in this patriarchal system (2013) including me, a female. For example, when I accepted my husband’s marriage proposal, we did not live in the same city. Although I was successful in my career, I could not accept that a “real man” should change his life because of marriage, and I decided to move to South Carolina. Thus, I valued my husband’s lifestyle and career more than my lifestyle and career in North Carolina, which is internalized sexism (Szymanski, Gupta, Carr, & Stewart, 2009). Therefore, my thought process illustrates my participation in the patriarchal structure.

Angela Holdsworth foregrounds the changed position of women in her book 'Out of the Doll's House' where 'women are no longer content to endure the treatment which in past times their inferior position obliged them to suffer.’ The use of obliged suggests how passively women had to accept their lower role under men and how they were unable to break out of convention due to stagnant male attitudes and values. However it is clear in both novels that strong forces of dis-empowerment are at work for both men and women. This results in many being trapped within their gender’s crippling

Susan Maher, in her article “Laura Ingalls and Caddie Woodlawn: Daughters of a Border Space,” explores how both Laura and Caddie function in their respective worlds as girls who refuse to stick to a single space and instead cross the border between several different spaces. Maher looks at the fathers in both novels, and says they, “consciously breaking with eastern society, become their daughters ' mentors, guiding the girls ' transformation as daughters of the land” (Maher 131-132). Mr. Woodlawn teaches Caddie how to fix clocks and plow the fields, and even comforts her when he is upset. Compared to his wife, Mr. Woodlawn represents a more mother-like character for Caddie than Mrs. Woodlawn. Maher explains the mothers in both Laura and Caddie’s stories as “conveyors of eastern manners and fashions, of domestic protocol, [who] modify, even hinder, the girls ' attachment to the native soil” (Maher 132). The parent nurturing the daughter is not the mother as is the case in many stories. Instead, the mothers effectively inhibit their daughters’ growth by limiting what their daughters can do. Mr. Woodlawn functions as Caddie’s mentor, and it is he who ultimately causes the change in Caddie’s way of thinking.

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.

In her story, “Old Woman Magoun” she delivered a feminist message more directly than ever. It’s based in turn-of-the-century New England, patriarchy still defined relationships even though the men themselves had degenerated. The story reflects the realities of Freeman’s own life, as her father’s business failed and her mother became the support of the family. However, Freeman’s life was not unique; rural New England is

Over the course of many years, women have struggled to expand their roles and rights in society, hoping to one day achieve complete equality with their male counterparts. Two women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Judy (Syfers) Brady, both recognized the patriarchal society in which women had to endure. They despised the way it heaped inequality and servitude upon women, and decided to assert their opinion on the issue in order to change the perceptions and imposed limitations on women. In Stanton’s speech, “Declaration of Sentiments”, and in Brady’s article, “I Want a Wife”, both women attempt to convince their audiences that females deserve complete equality with men by stating the submissive situations and obligations women find themselves immersed in. This is done to get their female audiences to reevaluate how they have been treated and give them a second chance at attaining equality. Both women employ various rhetorical techniques in their arguments to strengthen, as well as compel other women to oppose the ‘domesticated’ image of women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Judy (Syfers) Brady expressed their views in pursuance of forging a path to a revamped lifestyle for women.

This patriarchal ideology expresses female submissiveness towards male dominance and is supported through the clergyman, Mr. Collins, and his proposal to Elizabeth. During Mr. Collins's proposal, Elizabeth rejects Mr. Collins by replying, ‘"I am perfectly serious in my refusal. You could not make me happy and I am convinced that I am the last women in the world who would make you so"’ (Austin 74). Elizabeth insinuates clearly and strongly that Mr. Collins could not give her the life and happiness she desires in a marriage, yet he still continues on stating his reasons of his qualifications for marriage. Despite Elizabeth’s rejections, Mr. Collins assures that he is not “unworthy of [her] acceptance, or that the establishment that [he] could offer would be any other than highly desirable… and [his] proposals will not fail of being accepted”’ (Austin 74). The significance of the proposal centers on Mr. Collin’s reasons for marriage and the influence of patriarchal dynamics surrounding them. Even though Elizabeth rejects Mr. Collins multiple times, it does not invoke him to change his mind in his proposal, but rather he continues on explaining how his status in society and lifestyle is “highly desirable” and how it would bring him happiness but not necessarily to his spouse. This shows the male dominance that men hold over women as he assumes early on that Elizabeth will without out doubt agree to the marriage to bring him happiness, thus illustrating the expectation of female submissiveness towards male desires in the patriarchy. Ultimately, Elizabeth’s incapability of expressing her rejection to Mr. Collins's proposal the first time, it supports the oppression of women gender roles and their expected submissiveness towards the male gender through this marriage

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, societies were primarily patriarchal. Men were considered the dominant gender and were given full authority over females. From the time they were born, women belonged to their fathers then eventually their husbands when they were married. Females were not allowed to make their own decisions throughout their entire lives. Women were caged into the life of being a perfect lady and nothing less. During the day, women were left with the responsibility of cleaning, taking care of the house, raising and watching children, cooking, and running day time errands for their husbands. They were also responsible for ignoring any affair their husbands may be having with any of their close friends, neighbors, and secretaries. Women were forced to live the perfect life in the public’s eye. Unfortunately, that was not always possible. As imagined, this type of

The protagonist’s marriage with her spouse, John, exposes stereotypical roles of both male and females, and the subordination of women in that era. John’s assumption of superior wisdom assures

Authors tend to use their literature to highlight many great issues—especially those present in society. This allows the author free range to critique conditions in their society that they consider to be flawed. During late 19th century America, there were strict gender roles in place. Traditionally, men were to “bring home the bacon” whilst women were domesticated and expected to tend to the home. This novel depicts the reversal of a stereotypical patriarchal society by rejecting tradition —through it’s protagonist characters.

For centuries, women have had the role of being the perfect and typical house wife; needs to stay home and watch the kids, cook for husbands, tend to the laundry and chores around the house. In her short story Girl, Jamaica Kincaid give us a long one sentence story about a mother giving specific instructions to her daughter but with one question towards the end, with the daughters mother telling her daughter if she had done all the instructions to become a so called “perfect” woman, what man would not want her. Kincaids structuring in “Girl,” captures a demanding and commanding tone. This short story relates feminist perspectives. The mother expects a great deal from her daughter to have a certain potential and she does not hesitate to let her daughter understand it. As a matter of fact, the story is two pages long, made into one long sentence - and almost the whole time the mother is giving her daughter directions to follow - sends a message to the reader that the mother demands and expects great potential in her daughter. The daughter is forced to listen and learn from what her mother is telling her to do to be the perfect housewife. Throughout the story, Kincaid uses the symbols of house and clothing, benna and food to represent the means of becoming a young girl to a woman and being treated like one in society.

Throughout the nineteenth century men and women roles were characterized by a division of activity into two domains for men and women. While women may have been seen as powerful in the home because they were responsible for the upkeep, that power was limited because the man was known as the head of the home. Unlike women in the same time period as Alexandra, she does not rely on a man or brothers for her success. Alexandra takes over the family land at a young age and was able to successfully transform the struggling farm into a thriving business. Willa Cather’s O Pioneers!

The laws for how women and men should act in regards to each other and towards the other sex in their community are, in many cultures, clearly defined. From the earliest recorded laws, historians can see that societies had separate roles for men and women. Nina McConigley, author of Cowboys and East Indians, explores the role of gender throughout her short stories. Often allowing clear boundaries to be crossed, and doing this in a way that the reader understands that cultural rules are being violated. One of her most extreme examples of cultural expectation and deviation in this book is in the short story “Pomp and Circumstances.”