Role Of Women: Past Vs. Present

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Role of Women: Past vs. Present
All through the last century in this country, the roles of women has changed dramatically. Role is defined as a socially expected behavior pattern usually determined by an individual’s status in a particular society. The roles of women in the past are demonstrated in the stories, “The Necklace,” “The Storm,” and “The Lady with the Pet Dog.” These stories reveal how women in history had a much different and limited roles compared to modern American women. The women in the stories had only the roles of motherhood and wifehood. Compared to today where women can pursue just about any career or profession they want to achieve due to the liberation of women. Liberalization opened new economic opportunities and the number of women working in hierarchy is slowly but steadily growing (Henslin 2004). Women have even entered into the male dominated areas of work such as the police and the army.
An important factor of limited role in the past was the idea of repression. Women in the past were repressed by not only their husband, but also by society. Repression still continues to exist today but is not as evident as it was. A significant reason of why this matter existed was the concept of gender inequality. Women were long considered naturally weaker than men, squeamish, and unable to perform work requiring muscular or intellectual development; thus revealing the ideology that “women are the natural inferior of men” (Aristotle as cited by Bentley & Ziegler). Throughout most of history women generally have had fewer legal rights and career opportunities than men. Resulting in wifehood and motherhood regarded as women's most significant professions.
Wifehood proved to be the only profession for Mme. Loisel in “The Necklace,” and also the same for Mrs. Mallard in “The Story of an Hour.” The texts in these stories presented how average women lived and the type of jobs they...