What I Ve Learned From Men By Barbara Ehrenreich

897 Words4 Pages
The essay, “What I’ve Learned from Men”, by Barbara Ehrenreich is an impressive piece of writing focusing on a significant theme which is still present and is witnessed to this day. The theme that the author discusses is the on-going gender issues shedding light on the differences between men and women. Throughout the essay, Ehrenreich argues about the one thing women need to learn from men: how to be tough. She support this argument by providing a personal experience, taking her back to the time when she didn’t acknowledge the quality of being tough and falling victim to sexual harassment. She then explains this act as “behaving like a lady” and continues to support her claim by stating facts describing how women tend to act nice or “as a lady” by being the ones responsible to keep the conversation with a man going and constantly smiling even when unneeded and even when expressing anger and displeasure. Also the author as able to strengthen her argument by adding supporting views from authorities (Jean Baker Miller), which emphasized how women tend to avoid the appearance of power as she never take credit for her achievements and usually blames it on being lucky. At the end of the essay the author advocates several strategies women should pursue in order to get tough such as “taking credit when credit is due” (Par.10), because taking credit when it is deserved is a sign of confidence and determination, also she explains how women should express their anger in different