Representations of Woman and Womanhood in American Culture

Feminism and Women’s Writing

MOTTO

Women have a much better time than men in this world. There are far more things

forbidden to them.Oscar Wilde

“No man would consent to be a woman, but every man wants women to exist. Thank God for having created woman. Nature is good since she has given women to men” Simone de Beauvoir

Differences between men and women The Bible

The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And The Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him ... And The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which The Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

(Genesis 2:7,18,21-23)

Historical Perspective

“The female is female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities” (Aristotle)“Woman is an imperfect man” (St.Thomas Aquinas)“God created man and woman as equal beings” (Christine de Pisan: La Cité de Dames, 1405)

Mary Wollstonecraft(early 19th c; E. author/philosopher)A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)- ‘vindication’ = excuse, justification: “I do not wish them

[women] to have power over men; but over themselves”

- The importance of education & the importance that women be given a more liberal education

- Need for books on the nature & existence of gender differences

- Against Rousseau’s idea = women educated only to obey and please men

- Need for the society to offer an education that develops the mind =>reason, self-perfection, & knowledge

- Women perceived as ‘rational’ as well as primarily ‘emotional’

Educational System

Female writing, for the first time, part of the curriculum

E.g. female academics were foundedH.B.Stowe = reaction to 1850 Fugitive Slave LawL.M. Alcott = abolitionist, feministH. Jacobs (Linda Brent)= Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl – North CarolinaFanny Kemble (Southern actress and writer; Georgia) = Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation (1868) – women as breeders & sexual slaves

John Stuart Mill

On The Subjection of Women (1869):“All men, except the most brutish, desire to have in the woman most nearly connected with them, not a forced slave but a willing one, not a slave merely, but a favorite. They have therefore put everything in practice to enslave their minds.” (qtd. in Northern Anthology, Vol. 2. 991)

The Transcendentalists(mid 1800s; Emerson & Thoreau)Abolitionist movementM. Fuller – The Dial (1840-1844); co-editor with Emerson

Woman in the 19th C:State of marriage in America (1880s)Need to break stereotypesUnmarriageable (attracted/well-educated)

=> If women get over this inferiority complex => take care of themselves, carry on intelligent/meaningful conversation & still be attractive.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Lucretia Mott

1848 – Seneca Falls Convention (Women’s Rights Convention)

Declaration of SentimentsSojourner Truth: “Aint’t I a Woman?”

Lucy Stanton & Susan B. Anthony

1851 = political activists1859 = Anthony led the legislative for a constitutional amendment => right to:

VotePropertyCustody rights in marriage

Sexual & Economic Independence (1910)

Ellen Key (sexual liberation)Emma Goldman & Charlotte Perkins Gilman (economic independence)

e.g.:- equality in all walks of life- sex/gender- not defined by family

Rights

1912: first minimum laws applicable to womenSuffrage movementBirth control movement (Goldman)

1914:Margaret Sanger: “Woman Rebel” (radical newspaper)

Changes

For African American womenMulticulturalismThe injury of woman’s repression:

Kate Chopin: “The Storm”Ch.P.Gilman: “The Yellow Wallpaper”

A life devoid of intellectual & artistic activity (cure for her nervous breakdown)

Hisaye Yamamoto: “Seventeen Syllables”Maxine Hong Kingston: The Woman WarriorZola Neale Hurston: Their Eyes were Watching GodAmy Tan: The Joy Luck Club

Virginia Woolf

A Room of One’s Own (1929): about patriarchy that prevents women from realizing their creativity & full potential:“In the first place, to have a room of her own, let alone a quiet room or a sound-proof room, was out of the question, unless her parents were exceptionally rich or very noble, even up to the beginning of the nineteenth century… Such material difficulties were formidable, but much worse were the immaterial. The indifference of the world, which Keats and Flaubert and other men of genius have found so hard to bear was in her case not indifference but hostility” (52)

After Second World War

Return to conservatorism1955- Rosa Parks1960s – NOW (National Organization for Women) -> Equal Rights Amendment

Feminist TheoreticiansJudith Butler (1956): gender reduced to language performance (Gender Trouble)Betty Friedan: The Feminine Mystique (1963): domestic realm reduced their identity to sexual & social passivity.Mary Ellman (1968): Thinking about Women: stereotyping of women in literature written by menKate Millet: Sexual Politics (1969): western institutions established gender rolesElaine Schowalter (1977): 3 stages of women’s writing (1. The Feminine Period: 1840-1889 = imitation of the mainstream literary tradition; 2. The Feminist Period: 1890-1920 = protest against the patriarchal tradition; 3. The Female Period: 1920-1960 = self-discovery; identity search)Toril Moi (1985) = the intersections of literature, philosophy and aesthetics (Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory)

Feminist Writers

Toni Morrison (Afro-American writer)Alice Walker (Afro-American writer)Paule Marshall (Afro-American writer)J.S.Wong (Chinese-American writer)B.Mukherjee (Indian-American writer)

=> America =>rel-ship writer/reader => vehicle for feminism

Feminist Approach

Sex (biological) vs. gender (social/cultural construction):

“One is not born a woman, but becomes a woman”; “to catch a husband is an art, to hold him is a job”

Woman as “the other” (Simone de Beauvoir – ‘the minority’ vs. ‘the privileged/favored’)Not only a stronger emphasis on womenReconsider history/society/literature

Feminist Literary CriticismLook through the eyes of a feminist

1. Consider the roles/situations of female characters2. Look at the rel-ships of female characters to each other;

overall role of females3. Review of role of female characters in relation to their

male counterparts, i.e. woman vs. man4. Look at the vocational roles of women (study the work

each character does)5. Consider the attitudes of characters & how their world-

views contribute to the eventual outcomes in the story. The goals of characters may/may not cause outcomes. Evaluate how “powerful” each character becomes.

=> Male writers can be feminists but cannot be female writers

Historical Perspective

Excluded from many social, political & economic fields, women turned to writing as the only way left for women to assert individuality and autonomy. To be a female writer meant to destroy the stereotypical image about a woman.

Three Ideals of Womnahood19th c

1. Barbara Welter: the cult of true womanhood (Dimity Convictions: The American Woman in the 19th c, 1976)

2. Frances Cogan: the ideal of real womanhood (All-American Girl. The Ideal of Real Womanhood in Mid-Nineteenth Century America, 1989; woman becoming)

3. Rosalind Rosenberg: the ideal of new/feminist womanhood (Beyond Separate Spheres: Intellectual roots of Modern Feminism, 1982)

EDUCATION

FAMILY AND MARITAL RIGHTS

WORK

SOCIAL RIGHTS

EDUCATION

18TH-19TH CENTURY a state of "ignorance and

slavish dependence” no rights to be educated educated for marriage at home/convent/private

schools educated to raise their

own children no equality in education

with men

20TH-21ST CENTURY Independence rational education educated for a life of

self-respect, and moral virtue

schools, colleges, universities-public schools

educated to excel in life, to have a career

equality in education with men

WORK

18TH-19TH CENTURY

women-slaves/men-masters domestic work rearing and educating

children sewing later they could work in:

Textile mills/garment shops

20TH-21ST CENTURY

their own masters, independent

career makers disregard of domestic

sphere choice of jobs own businesses

FAMILY AND MARITAL RIGHTS

18TH-19TH CENTURY seen as a wife/servant and a

mother please her husband and not

to disturb him arranged marriages based

on love subordinate to husband not allowed to divorce family was important

20TH-21ST CENTURY seen as a human being has the same right to be

pleased free marriages based on

either love or wealth equal to her husband allowed to divorce family is not so

important anymore-career

Cultural ExpectationsGender-imposed limitations Myth of the natural inferiority of womanDouble standard: standard applied unfairly: a principle, rule, or expectation that is applied unfairly to different groups, one group usually being condemned for the slightest offense while the other is treated far more leniently Gender roles and stereotypes prescribed by the cultural tradition (“a woman’s place is in the home”-cooking/cleaning/caring for children)Cultural icons that respect/transcend limitationsGradual changes in the traditional images of women, reflection of changing historical and social conditions.

Gender Roles. Female vs. Male Stereotypes (Cultural Types)

Delicate, self-sacrifice, devotion, housework, private, sentiment, passive, innocent, moral center, modest, dependent, emotional, spiritual, weak, submissive, inferior

Tough, personal success, ambition, “real” work, public, logical, active, worldly, provider, assertive, independent, reasonable, material, strong, dominant, superior.

Women in Literature. Woman as Cultural Identity/Icon

Literature as cultureStudies of images/types of women in literature written by men/womenGendered identities/roles in literature. How they develop/changeCultural position of women in American literature:

Literary domesticity in 19th c America; separate spheres; immigration; subversion of gender; Puritanism; culturally diverse women’s situations.

CHANGING ROLES: FROM SHADOWS TO PERSONS

I. THE CENTURY OF CHANGE

The 19th century is usually seen as the century of change for the American world. It is the century of the Indian wars, of the expanding frontier, the century of Civil War and of Transcendentalism, and the century of the Industrial Revolution, all these shaping the American scene in one way or another.

1. THE FRONTIER:THE SETTLING OF THE WEST

“This movement profoundly affected the American scene: it encouraged individual initiative, it fostered political and economic democracy, it roughened manners; it broke down conservatism; and it bred a spirit of self – determination, coupled with respect for national authority.” (Gray, Hofstadter, Olson: 63)

“To the west, to the west, to the land of the free

Where mighty Missouri rolls down to the sea; Where a man is man if he’s willing to toil, And the humblest may gather the fruits of the

soil. Where children are blessings and he who

hath most Has aid for his fortune and riches to boast. Where the young may exult and the aged be

at rest Away, far away, to the land of the west.”

2. THE CIVIL WAR: 1861-1865

Slavery = barbaricConsequences: 1. “All persons born or naturalized in the US and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the US and of the states in which they reside.”

2. “The rights of citizens of the US to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the US or by any state on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.”

3. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Transformed the USA into a well – developed, flourishing countryTransport developedCommunication improvedAgriculture: new machines appearedCities grew in number and in population

Gerda Lerner (1920 - )Austrian-born U.S. educator and historian.

Women's history is the primary tool for women's emancipation.

(On the Future of Our Past)

3 Ideals of Womanhood

1. Barbara Welter: the cult of true womanhood (Dimity Convictions: The American Woman in the 19th c, 1976)

2. Frances Cogan: the ideal of real womanhood (All-American Girl. The Ideal of Real Womanhood in Mid-Nineteenth Century America, 1989) (disappearead)

3. Rosalind Rosenberg: the ideal of new/feminist womanhood (Beyond Separate Spheres: Intellectual Roots of Modern Feminism, 1982)

The ideal of mid 19th c middle-class American women is to be (critics say) a “Lady of Leisure” who “neither toils nor spins” (Gerda Lerner- a “delicate flower”, and a passive parasite. These wrong opinions harm, on the one hand, the women themselves; on the other hand, point out at “idiocy of women who held such values”.

1. TRUE WOMANHOOD

“Simple hostage in the home” (Welter)Piety: religion could be practiced at homePurity: virgins until marriage Domesticity: home = territory of safety from where she could perform her great task of bringing men back to God

= women’s proper sphere Submissiveness: women should obey men and treat them as their lords and masters

true woman 1800-1840

fragile maiden, delicate flower, passive parasite, submissive maiden, lady of leisurebased on physiological and biological interpretations of female inferiority (nervous, easily subdued/dominated by male force, strong emotion/male rationality)woman’s duty = to die/sacrifice herselfseparate sphere (domestic sphere)

Although many women possibly did adhere to the stereotype of the fragile maiden, the 2nd popular ideal advocated intelligence, physical fitness and health, self-sufficiency, economic self-reliance, and careful marriage. It was an image sustained both by men and women.

2. REAL WOMANHOOD

Her duty was:-not to die, but rather to live -not to sacrifice herself, but to surviveShe represents the NEW AMERICA

real woman (female) 1840-1880

intelligencephysical fitness and healthself-sufficiencyeconomic self-reliancecareful marriagenot feministbiologically equal (rationally as well as emotionally), even superior in intellect sometimesto live/to surviveremained good daughters/sisters/wives/mothers because in their own eyes they were important to family/societywork viewed as a necessity, not for personal fulfillment – two spheres- domestic, publicwomen were not made to be men’s slaves, they were men’s spiritual and emotional superiors whose moral duty was to reform and uplift society by female taste and the influence of a quiet feminine examplehome=dedicated/primary domesticity (grace, gentleness, beauty, courtesy, piety)separate sphere = extendedsense of duty to others

3. FEMINISM

The New Woman: characteristics:1. The right to a career2. Desire for both career and marriage3. Less feminine clothing4. The idea that women are men’s spiritual

and emotional superiors

feminist/new woman (1885-1890)

unique sphere of action and duty for womenindependent spirit and commitment to a lifetime career irrespective of the financial needs of the family or her marital statuswork for personal fulfillmentone sphere –disinterest in the female domestic sphere – an over-disgust with housework, the approved wearing of more sensible (less feminine) clothing, sweaty athleticism and a shocking desire for “fellowship” with menloss of values = moral decency and grace and the loss of love for women with careersHome=refuge of man from soul-destroying horrors of the market place; it would be destroyed when women were made “unfit” for that refuge by education/career. Home without its guiding spirit and votary=a structurecareer and marriage = dilemma - loneliness/act like a man

II. WOMEN AT HOME

1. EDUCATIONa) TW:1. Many people opposed the idea

of “educated women” as it was believed that once a woman was educated, she would not agree any longer to be a wife and a mother and nothing else.

2. Reading, writing, child care and domestic problems

b) RW: 1. women must not be denied education. These people believed that education helped women develop “self – control and self – discipline” (Cogan: 73). Women were even encouraged to take up subjects believed up to then to fit only boys: natural sciences, history, mathematics and literature.

2. denial of the right to higher education

2. MARRIAGEa) TW: early, arranged marriage passive maiden remaining single = nightmareb) RW: no marriage=preferable to a bad marriage marriage = a sacred reunion between two

people who had common interests

III. WIVES AND MOTHERS

Differences between: - Southern and Northern

women - white and black women Legally, the wife belonged to the

husband

Once the settling of the West started, women got a more important role in the family, as they had the difficult job of making a home in the “land of nowhere”. They started to be seen as equal partners to their husbands, as their “job” was as difficult and important as their men’s. This was maybe the first step towards equality.

The Southern belle as opposed to the more practical Northern ladyAfro – American women: - child bearers

- sexual objects“Even when a master agreed to say the

marriage service for two slaves, he always left out the essential words <<Till death do us part>> - he might want to part them much sooner. “ (Brogan: 291)

IV. WOMEN WRITERS AND WOMEN CHARACTERS

Writing was not considered a proper occupation for women in the 19th century America. Louisa May Alcott, Catharine Maria Sedgwick and Harriet Beecher Stowe. They managed to present an insight into the feminine soul as almost no other male writer had done. Besides that, they placed their characters on a changing American scene, thus offering a vivid picture of different aspects of the new country.

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT: LITTLE WOMEN

Influenced by the TranscendentalistsNever got married: “Half the misery of time comes from unmated pairs trying to live their legal lie decorously to the end at any cost.”

JO

a kind of alter – ego of the writer. In many aspects, Jo March and Louisa May Alcott are the same: unconventional writers who made out of their profession more than just a hobby.. In the end, after being criticized as a writer, she gives up her dreams. She marries and accepts love and protection as an end to her aspirations. Her destiny seems to illustrate Ralph Waldo Emerson’s law of compensation as announced in his essay Compensation: “For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something.”

IDEAS

MARRIAGE: love and respect“Money is a needful and precious thing – and, when well used, a noble thing, - but I never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for. I’d rather see you poor men’s wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queens on thrones, without self – respect and peace.”

CATHARINE MARIA SEDGWICK: HOPE LESLIE

Her achievement: the ability to make America known to the world: its landscape, history, mixture of races, in a word for everything that makes America so unique

True women: 1. Martha 2. Esther Downing: “was of a

reserved, tender, and timid cast of character”. Sedgwick does not allow her to marry Everell, the author sensing that this kind of woman was not the one needed by the country. “She recognized, and continually taught to matron and maiden, the duty of unqualified obedience from the wife to the husband, her appointed lord and master.”

Real woman: Hope Leslie = the New America“I love to have my own way” “Hope Leslie took counsel only from her own heart” The fact that Everell chooses Hope Leslie, the real woman, instead of Esther, the true woman, represents a proof that the future belonged to the real woman

The Indian woman: Magawisca – represents a dying

raceThe author seems to point to the fact that the Indian race had no more chances. The future was of the white man. One race had to retreat and disappear in order that the other could survive.

HARRIET BEECHER – STOWE: UNCLE TOM ‘S CABIN

First, it showed the evilness and lack of humanity slavery meant. Second, it presented strong female characters, showing that a woman can be just as intelligent and morally strong as a man. She strongly believed that evil can be overcome and that one day both slaves and women will have a better life.

V. WOMEN WHO MEANT A CHANGE

THE ROOTS OF FEMINIST MOVEMENT1. Women as moral reformers2. Women as abolitionists: the situation of

women and slaves was, more or less, similar

Turning point: first woman’s right convention: Seneca Falls, 1848: women asked for the right to equal education, equal opportunity for employment, equality before the law and the right to vote.

Important women’s rights fighters

Sojourner Truth, Amelia Bloomer and the Grimké sisters“That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere… Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me any best place, and aren’t I a woman?

VI. CONCLUSIONS

the change from “half – slaves” to free women was neither sudden, nor easy In one hundred years, women changed their traditional roles of wives and mothers to that of active participants to building the country and the nation

We, today’s women, take many of our rights in modern society as granted and normal. We cannot imagine being denied to work outside our homes, to go to university or to vote. However, we owe a great deal of our liberties to a group of militant American women who, more than one hundred years ago dared to challenge woman’s traditional roles. They tried to prove that a woman is more than a wife and a mother, that she is first and foremost a rational human being, a crucial member of the society, and therefore, she should have the same rights as men.

CONCLUSION

"WE AS WOMEN“CHARLOTTE PERKINS

GILMAN

There's a cry in the air about us–We hear it, before, behind–Of the way in which "We, as women," Are going to lift mankind!

With our white frocks starched and ruffled, And our soft hair brushed and curled–Hats off! for "We, as women,"Are coming to save the world.

Fair sisters! listen one moment–And perhaps you'll pause for ten: The business of women as womenIs only with men as men!

What we do, "We, as women,"We have done all through our life; The work that is ours as womenIs the work of mother and wife.

But to elevate public opinion, And to lift up erring man, Is the work of the Human Being; Let us do it–if we can.

But wait, warm-hearted sisters–Not quite so fast, so far. Tell me how we are going to lift a thingAny higher than we are!

We are going to "purify politics," And to "elevate the press." We enter the foul paths of the worldTo sweeten and cleanse and bless

Now then, all forward together! But remember, every one, That 'tis not by feminine innocenceThe work of the world is done

The world needs strength and courage,And wisdom to help and feed–When, "We, as women" bring these to man, We shall lift the world indeed

To hear the high things we are going to do,And the horrors of man we tell, One would think, "We, as women," were angels, And our brothers were fiends of hell.

We, that were born of one mother, And reared in the self-same place, In the school and the church together, We of one blood, one race!