Since the turn of the 19th century, women’s role in literature has evolved as they take on bigger roles in literary writing. This essay follows the progression of women writers and their texts in society in three genres. The works used are Fanny Fern’s book Male Criticism on Ladies Books, Virginia Woolf’s speech “Professions for Women,” and Olivia Gatwood’s poem “The Scholar” which have backed feminists to ensure that women take their rightful place in the writing profession. Fern counters the notion that female writers should ooze domesticity and not ambition. Woolf echoes the same sentiments and decries the diminished role handed to women in literature. On the other hand, Olivia Gatwood’s poem “The Scholar,” describes women’s struggles in a patriarchal literary industry. Successful women in literature have had to overcome stereotypes and insurmountable obstacles to achieve a status close to parity with male writers. This essay discusses how women writers have long been marginalized in the writing profession. The three works show how women’s role in literature has evolved through the centuries, from being “angels in the house” to world-renowned authors.
From the 19th through to the 21st century, women have been handed diminished roles in society. Traditionally, female roles were centered on the hearth, home-making, and rearing children. Oftentimes they would be left at home cooking and cleaning when their husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons were off fighting. Drawing attention to oneself in public was unladylike in those days, and as a consequence, there were very few women writers. These authors were often mistreated and discriminated against and their careers were hardly as fulfilling as those of their male counterparts. This trend inspired this project through the lens of three women in the literary profession from the 19th to the 21st centuries.
Writing novels and other literary works were not considered a prestigious career in the 19th century. However, towards the end of the century, the profession became highly attractive due to its rewarding nature. Consequently, it became more attractive to male writers, and women’s representation in writing novels diminished significantly. Many women were lured away from creative writing and took on a much larger role in non-fiction literature. Females often had to struggle with gender inequality and the lack of freedom in their styles of writing. Their works were often the recipients of unjust criticisms from male authors, especially if they did not meet specific criteria set for them as writers. In her book Male Criticism on Ladies Books, Fern criticizes the “feminine novel” as a book that oozes the writer’s domesticity (Fern 94). If the book expressed radical views that were free of the phantoms of gender inequality, then the female writer would often use a pseudonym to protect her identity and her writing career (Howell 24). In that case, some female writers went to the extent of using male pseudonyms to understand the literary world better.
In her speech “Professions for Women,” Woolf decried the diminished role handed to women writers. She argues that while there were virtually no obstacles for women in the writing profession in the 20th century, there were phantoms in the creative process resulting from women’s social roles in many patriarchal societies. Women in the literary world had to ensure that their opinions were flattering, tender, deceitful, full of sexual allure, and purity (Woolf 293). She decried that the female poet or author often had to rely on her charm instead of her wit and creativity to survive in the industry. She describes the overbearing influence of the “angel in the house” by confessing that she used her first writer’s check to buy a Persian cat instead of “more masculine” expenses such as rent and food (Woolf 293). Lastly, she admitted that early in her career, she struggled with gender bias and the phantom of the ideal female writer before becoming an accomplished independent author in her own right.
In the 20th century, gender bias was very evident in the industry. This fact is best illustrated by many male editors’ insistence that the best novels had male protagonists. In her speech, Woolf discloses that she had to review a book written by a man to earn her first paycheck. She had battled her insecurities as a woman to blossom as a writer and subsequently got rid of the mental obstacles in her progression as a female writer in a male-dominated industry. She claims that men accord themselves more freedom in writing that it is easy for them to sweep their imagination for a creative spark for their literary works (Woolf 294). However, women have to use feminine charms to overcome the limitations that hinder their success in professional writing. In that case, female authors have to overcome their personal subjugations to compete equally with male writers.
Women in the writing profession in the 21st-century experience fewer obstacles to their career development compared to their 19th and 20th-century counterparts. The advent of feminist movements has given women writers significantly more power to express their opinions more openly. Nonetheless, women still have to contend with male criticism and gender inequality in contemporary literature. Many online stores have a category for “women’s fiction,” which stocks books that deal primarily with women’s concerns. The writing industry is still unwelcoming to female writers and objectifies women sexually. In her poem “The Scholar,” Olivia Gatwood describes women’s struggles in a patriarchal world. She describes a woman whose thighs are bait for men’s gazes as she goes about her business at the river. She struggles to get home to write about how her lover has fallen in love with another lady living in Europe (Gatwood 85). She is expected to love him despite his blatant lack of affection for her whereas women who have extramarital affairs are often hounded. The poem illustrates that women writers still have to use feminine charm to gain a following in the literary world.
The status of female authors and poets has changed in the 21st century. Due to the work of their predecessors and feminists, women writers do not face as many unjust remarks as their 19th-century counterparts. This advantage notwithstanding, women writers still have to prove to their publishers that their works are worth publishing. Men are still the dominant figures in both the writing industry and their works despite improving female representation. The creation of women’s categories in online and offline literary repositories does not seem discriminatory at first. However, the absence of a sub-category for male writers in the same repositories reveals the gender bias (Howell 25). This disparity has often attracted criticism from feminists in the literary world and given women writers more reason to fight patriarchy in the industry.
Despite the improvement in women’s representation in the literary world, the concept of the “angel in the house,” or dutiful housewives has been persistent throughout the three centuries. Women are still viewed as homemakers and subservient to men both in society and in the literary world. Criticism of women’s creative works has become a discipline and more commonplace in the 21st century. Nonetheless, feminists and women’s rights activists have struggled to protect female writers from discrimination. However, a lot more needs to be done to ensure that women do not have to use their charm to gain literary acclaim. People should refrain from branding events in women’s literary works as improbable or the characters used as being odd if they do not fit in the patriarchal criteria of acceptability.
Works Cited
Fern, Fanny. “Male Criticism on Ladies’ Books.” Feminist Literary Theory and Criticism, edited by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Norton, 2007, pp. 93-95.
Gatwood, Olivia. Life of the Party: Poems. Dial P, 2019.
Howell, Samantha. “The Evolution of Female Writers: An Exploration of Their Issues and Concerns from the 19th Century to Today.” Hohonu, vol. 13, 2014, pp. 23-26.
Woolf, Virginia. The Collected Essays of Virginia Woolf. Read Books Ltd, 2017.