Ethan Frome Critical Analysis Essay Gender criticism applies heavily to the novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. Wharton makes it apparent that gender roles only limit the potential of people and that they can even destroy relationships. Wharton conveys these ideas through the main characters, Ethan, Mattie, and Zeena. Starting with Ethan.
The female wage earners were often white, young, and unmarried. Most young women would expect to spend their money on things that are enticing to them (makeup, clothing, etc.). However, they were expected to contribute to their households with sharing their wages. They were not permitted to spend their paychecks frivolously and expected to pitch in to help with their families’ costs. Though there were 3.6 million women working in nonagricultural jobs, their pay was a “third to half of the pay for men” (Dubois, 295).
The women endured additional burdens like campaigns against hiring women because they thought jobs should go to male breadwinners and then three quarters of the school districts in the country banned married women from being hired as teachers (Henretta, 2009). The women in Minnesota in breadlines were subject to sit in employment bureaus and hoped for work to try to provide for their family (Bethel University, 2005). The women here are those who are middle-aged, some have families, while some have raised the children and now they are alone (Bethel University, 2005). The others are those who have men that are out of work (Bethel University, 2005). These women are left to struggle to fed many mouths by themselves, while the women who pride gets the best of them starves silently, leaving the children to find work (Bethel University, 2005).
Women’s Role’s Edith Wharton born in 1862 became a world known writer. Focusing mainly on class structure and women’s roles, Wharton portrayed to the world the lives of people during the 20th century. Gender inequality, as well as moral and ethical dilemma was a prominent issue not only in society but, became evident throughout Wharton’s writing. Determined to share her experiences with the world Wharton disguised moral and economic situations in literature that allowed readers to connect mentally. During an era where social class and wealth defined a person’s entity, Wharton seemed to focus mainly on the higher class structure.
Women and the battle to maintain a work-lifestyle balance has been consistently debated and toyed with by society for ages. Anne-Marie Slaughter, Professor of Politics and author of “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” explains the continuous hardship of balancing a career and a family; as well, Stephen Marche, writer and author of “Home Economics: The Link Between Work-Life and Income Equality” combats Slaughter’s article and the many gaps present in society. Slaughter and Marche compare and contrast the differences of the leadership gap between men and women, the strategies of maintaining a work-balance lifestyle in regards to family, and the type of dialogue representing men in articles written by women. Anne-Marie Slaughter and Stephen
The women were expected to create a happy home, guard the religion, and the morality of her family. The unmarried and married women who tried to seek work outside the home faced limited employment opportunities because of their gender. Women were expected to only focus on domestic duties and her role were limited to continue living in the man’s world. Women roles were expected to be in line with the culture and norms set by the society. The American culture perceived that women were not intellectually and emotionally stable to be involved in the complex world of work and, therefore, women did not take up leadership and political roles.
Thus, leading to her article “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” which first appeared as the cover story of the July/August issue of The Atlantic in 2008. “Why Women Can’t Have It All” is an illuminating essay on the struggles that women are left to face
“Generally, men are socialized into believing that their essential role in life is to work outside the home and provide for the family while women are taught that their main role is to be homemakers” (Akotia and Anum 5024). The breadwinner is normally thought of as a man, but Lena puts a twist on that gender role. “You the head of this family. You run our lives like you want to” (Hansberry 1948). Lena breaks the gender role
Deja Patterson English 3 Honors 2nd Block Mr. Colagross 4 January 2016 Doubt Analysis: Oppression of Women It is said that as a woman you are suppose to stay home, clean up, breed and raise the children. Women were not allowed to hold a higher job or success than men because they might feel intimidated and their ego might actually shirk instead of being inflated. The concept of how women are suppose to portray, have been suppressing women into these roles by both men and women since the earth has been created.
Ellen Olenska is, in essence, the complete opposite of what women were expected to be. Wharton chose to challenge those standards with Ellen in particular. Wharton created Ellen Olenska to show the reader that society’s double standards could be challenged. For example, it was forbidden for women to leave their husband, but Ellen Olenska left Count Olenska in Europe and moved to New York. Ellen was seen as striking towards the public upon her arrival, showing more skin than appropriate in New York for women at this time.
The Unnamed Woman Up until the 1900’s woman had few rights, thus they relied heavily on men. Women could not vote, they could not own their own property, and very few worked. Women’s jobs were solely to care for children and take care of the home. Women during this time, typically accepted their roles in society and the economy ( “Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1909”).
Within my own life, gender socialization has caused me not to pursue lucrative jobs in career fields that are “for men,” while sociobiology could have deterred me from entering the more physically demanding but rewarding field of culinary arts in favor of the less prestigious field of baking and pastry arts. As for Gilman’s Marxist emphasis, my co-worker has unfortunately lost her economic independence simply because she had to give up her job in order to give her son the attention he needs. Overall, while writing this essay, I was disheartened to discover that it was easy for me to identify the aforementioned examples, but I also realized that it is not as bad as it once was for women—it is a lot easier for women to rebel against gender inequality now. Despite these advances in freedom, however, I feel that Gilman’s theory is relevant when it comes to explaining the social world due to the fact that gender inequality still exists today, and it can still have an impact on a woman’s economic independence even though it is not as overt. With that being said, Gilman’s theory will continue to be useful because it helps to identify the roots of gender inequality that need to be eliminated if we ever want complete gender equality within our
During the 1890’s until today, the roles of women and their rights have severely changed. They have been inferior, submissive, and trapped by their marriage. Women have slowly evolved into individuals that have rights and can represent “feminine individuality”. The fact that they be intended to be house-caring women has changed.
In her conventional view, a woman must support her husband by creating an organized home and nurturing him. Women are not only in charge of doing the housework and childcare, but they have their own individual dreams they want to reach. It is discriminatory towards women when they live under the social expectations of being uneducated and a supported wife. From the textual support, it is evident that women struggle to reach their individual goals under a male-dominant society that require women to be
In fact the time traveler says, “ indeed there is no necessity – for an efficient family, and the specialization of the sexes with reference to their children's needs disappears. We see some beginnings of this even in our own time, and in this future age it was complete”(Wells 46), speaking on how he noticed that there was no difference on their genders. Furthermore, this is shown in today’s society because women are starting to rise in the ranks of businesses and taking over a “man’s” job. The Street talks on how, “the number of women in the workforce grew by more than two million between 2000 and 2010”(Fiegerman, Seth), showing that women are starting to take more initiative to become more successful than
