Why Women Still Can T Have It All Analysis
"Don't you belong in the kitchen?" "Shouldn't your husband be home soon?" "That doesn't really seem like a woman's job does it?" As a woman, hearing any of these questions, or others like it, feels like a slap in the face considering the numerous leaps and bounds women have made as a whole towards equality. In the fiction text "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, and the non-fiction text "Why Women Still Can't Have It All" by Anne-Marie Slaughter, the concept of gender roles play a critical role in how the women in these texts live their lives. "Why Women Still Can't Have It All" discusses how women in the modern-day work force struggle with balancing both an active role in their family life, and a successful career. This looks at traditional
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In "The Story of an Hour" the main character Louise mentions how she was rarely happy with her husband but would have spent the rest of her life with him due to the social implications of divorce during her time period. If Louise didn't feel as though she was forced to be with a man due to social standings, she would be able to live a life in which she was happy. Louise finds herself grappling with her feelings about her husband's passing. Being forced to let go of her spouse caused her to alter her grip on herself, allowing her to have the realization that "When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!” (Chopin 1). Not only has Louise lost her husband, but she has lost what society deemed as her keeper. Like a dog without an owner, Louise finds herself free from the control society gave to her superior. "Free, free, free!" is how she feels once the chains of her perceived gender roles are broken, and she realizes she can live for herself now instead of her husband. The way in which gender roles play a part in the female self-image is highlighted in Slaughters mentioning of how "millions of women feel that they are to blame if they cannot manage to rise up" (Slaughter 678-9). Women are blaming themselves for their inability to succeed due to a favoring of family over career, when in reality they are unable to succeed to begin with because society enforces a mindset that women will be happier in the
In "The Story of an Hour" the main character Louise mentions how she was rarely happy with her husband but would have spent the rest of her life with him due to the social implications of divorce during her time period. If Louise didn't feel as though she was forced to be with a man due to social standings, she would be able to live a life in which she was happy. Louise finds herself grappling with her feelings about her husband's passing. Being forced to let go of her spouse caused her to alter her grip on herself, allowing her to have the realization that "When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!” (Chopin 1). Not only has Louise lost her husband, but she has lost what society deemed as her keeper. Like a dog without an owner, Louise finds herself free from the control society gave to her superior. "Free, free, free!" is how she feels once the chains of her perceived gender roles are broken, and she realizes she can live for herself now instead of her husband. The way in which gender roles play a part in the female self-image is highlighted in Slaughters mentioning of how "millions of women feel that they are to blame if they cannot manage to rise up" (Slaughter 678-9). Women are blaming themselves for their inability to succeed due to a favoring of family over career, when in reality they are unable to succeed to begin with because society enforces a mindset that women will be happier in the