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Toni Jordan Nine Days Women Quotes

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Toni Jordan’s non-linear historical fiction novel Nine Days follows the joyous and tragic moments experienced by four generations of the Westaway family within Melbourne’s inner eastern suburbs. Within the parameters of her novel, Jordan thoroughly examines the ramifications experienced by women living in a patriarchal society. By depicting several generations of Westaway women over the course of 70 years, Nine Days provides an insight into the progression of gender roles and societal attitudes towards women from the 1940s into the 21st century, highlighting the freedom and agency that women in the modern era now have. Through stories of hope and devastation, Jordan presents a candid discussion on traditional family ideology, the challenges …show more content…

Access to birth control and safe abortion procedures were absent during the time of Connie’s pregnancy in the 1930s, causing family disarray and bringing shame on her mother Jean. Due to social attitudes towards unplanned pregnancy, Jean views Connie’s actions as “dragging [the Wasteways] down to the bottom of the hill” and describes her daught as a “loose woman” with “no morals” The lack of reproductive rights within this era is shown through Connie’s mother, who implores that she has an abortion in order to preserve her and her family’s reputation within the community, which subsequently resulted in Connie’s death. Jordan condemns the little personal choices available to women in the 1930s, and contrasts this with Charlotte’s experiences of unplanned pregnancy in the early 21st century. When Charlotte faces the same situation as Connie, Stanzi reminds her, “your body, your choice”, meaning that she can either choose to have the baby or have an abortion at the local hospital, which is a safe and “short operation”, unlike Connies horrific “backyard abortion”. Charlotte’s safe and easy access to abortion poignantly contrasts with the lack of options available to Connie, illustrating the substantial improvement in reproductive right for women within Australian

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Her compassion pushed her to take a stand, and fight for birth control for these women so that they could lead better and more fulfilling lives. Margaret believed that forcing women to undergo life-threatening births, and having children that they could not care for was essentially murder to both mother and children. Ironically Margaret’s mother was a devoted catholic, which in most cases because of Catholic faith often rejects birth control and views it as sinful, and Margaret fought for it to be allowed in the United States. Margaret noticed while working as a nurse that if women became pregnant and realized that they could not afford the child, they would seek abortions in unsanitary clinics and often became injured or worse in the process.

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