Feminism 1900-1910
Through the four texts I have studied I have found a main connection of feminism in different social settings between the times of 1900 - 1920. The texts I've studied are the two poems 'We As Women', by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and 'The Bees Song' by Julia Ward Howe, the novel 'In defense of Women', by H.L. Mencken and the poem 'I know why the caged bird sings' by Maya Angelou. Also through these four texts I have found three main ideas, these are 'how women were treated unequally', 'survival', and what women could bring to the world. 'We as Women' shows all of these ideas widely. The women society at this time period were treated unfairly and they has had enough of it, it was time to do something about it.
The idea of being treated unequally is mainly shown in the poem 'We as Women', by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, it widely shows the women's idea on this topic and how they felt about it. The way in which Charlotte Perkins Gilman does this is through the use of the position that the audience is put in. We as the reader are put in the position of the men and the women are chanting to us, giving us a speech of what they feel. Specifically this is shown as the women chant "We, that born of one mother, and reared in the self-same place, in the school and the church together, we of one blood, one race!" The effect of this is that we as the men take into consideration all of the memories of childhood, 'we' weren't treated differently then, so why are we now, suddenly coming into adulthood, treated differently to one another. Linking back to the idea this shows that the women have realised this too and are determined to get the message across that this isn't right. Charlotte Perkins Gilman emphasised on this by making it significant and putting it in its own stanza. We were born the same way, brought up the same way but now we are treated unequally? This isn't right. This idea is also shown in the novel 'In defense of Women', by H.L.Mencken. We see the idea expressed in
The idea of being treated unequally is mainly shown in the poem 'We as Women', by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, it widely shows the women's idea on this topic and how they felt about it. The way in which Charlotte Perkins Gilman does this is through the use of the position that the audience is put in. We as the reader are put in the position of the men and the women are chanting to us, giving us a speech of what they feel. Specifically this is shown as the women chant "We, that born of one mother, and reared in the self-same place, in the school and the church together, we of one blood, one race!" The effect of this is that we as the men take into consideration all of the memories of childhood, 'we' weren't treated differently then, so why are we now, suddenly coming into adulthood, treated differently to one another. Linking back to the idea this shows that the women have realised this too and are determined to get the message across that this isn't right. Charlotte Perkins Gilman emphasised on this by making it significant and putting it in its own stanza. We were born the same way, brought up the same way but now we are treated unequally? This isn't right. This idea is also shown in the novel 'In defense of Women', by H.L.Mencken. We see the idea expressed in