Role Of Feminism In Herland

Feminism. We have all heard the word before but, how would you describe it? Perhaps something describing “women empowerment”. In Gilman's book, Herland, the meaning of the word “feminism” is embellished, explained, and most importantly, recognized. This powerful word allowed women’s liberation to permeate throughout a discombobulated duration of time. “Gilman redefines womanhood, declaring women the equal of men in all spheres of life.” (Desimone). Whilst holding ideals of equality, these civilians faced the fight of spreading their hopes of a more open and welcoming society. Here, we embark on a journey that recognizes the capabilities of women and their persistence in which they exemplify throughout their lives.
In a novel where women faced …show more content…
In Herland, these women took great pride in what they had done for their community. In their education especially, they enforced the importance of a well-balanced mind and how they could further their prestige to later acquire various aptitudes. “To see the thousands of babies improving, showing stronger clearer minds, sweeter dispositions, higher capacities—don't you find it so in your country?” (Gilman 225). In this passage, the author establishes the development of a child. A Herlandian is discussing how throughout time, these women took the time to raise their children to meet their moral standards. By using positive developmental upbringings, Herlandian children have risen above and beyond expectations of the standard child. This results in greater prowess as they continue their legacy to future generations. Following this, a female Herlandian asks the males if such persistence and devotion is akin to those from their own homeland. Reluctantly, the males answer yes as they notice that the motherhood that is brought up here is merely unobtainable and immeasurable. This exhibits true succession and mere attainability in proving their capability of reaching the same success as males. “Herland is also excruciatingly antiquated – rife with gender essentialism …” (The Guardian). We see the women’s …show more content…
The power, force, and drive that these women exempt became such a large part of their society and is apparent through the reading of this text. “The road was some sort of hard manufactured stuff … "No men, eh?" sneered Terry.” (Gilman 41). With such slandering statements, you can see the sexism in which these women are drowning under. These remarks only showed the empowerment, though, of women. By shortly proving that they are in fact the only people on the island, the absence of men defines women empowerment as they tear down oppressive walls implemented by the males. With these men constantly degrading women like this, it creates independence as they constantly prove time after time that they are highly capable of doing the equivalence of the opposite sex. “Herland explores the differences between a patriarchy and matriarchy, and … particularly, gender performance”, (Inquiries Journal). This supports the claim on how, despite the patriarchy between the two sexes, Gilman dives deeply into the chaos that surrounds the novel. This is similar to modern-day society which compels such a strong reaction from the readers. By discovering the differences, Gilman unleashed a high road to both arguments and how these two parties could live together in harmony. This resolution could later reflect how modern day civilians could adopt Herlandian characteristics while dealing with alike chaos and how we