The article I read involves women struggling to be self-sufficient, independent, professional, educated and self-reliant. The women challenge the ideology of domesticity by the dominant culture; challenge the traditional role of women in the household. Like I said, they yearned for independence, but also for equality. They wanted the ability to financially support themselves and not to rely on men for self-definition. The goal was to achieve financial and emotional independence. Many of these women did not marry until later in their careers, once they felt their partners looked at them as equals.
The women in the article became successful writers. Throughout their education, they did not accept the support of a man to care for their expenses. Many left their homes and supported themselves. They challenged the “new mass market of fiction” that shaped itself through the attitudes and desires of its audience. Scholars who analyzed the literature labeled it “domestic or sentimental fiction.” The women demonstrated that, as a woman, you can have a domestic life, but also have a successful career.
There was an immense desire to challenge the role of women and to demonstrate that women could be successful and independent. As I mentioned earlier, these women married later in their career when they could say they “self-made” themselves. Once they return to the haven of the house, they endorse the values of domesticity. One women said her fiancé converted to a Christian minister for her love. Once he become devoted, responsible and chastened that is when she allowed him a husband position. “Once the hero gives in to the heroine, the heroine in turn can submit to his rule.”
Without knowing it myself, my feelings are very similar to the women in my article. Being a Mexican, my role was to eventually marry and have children. My role was to tend to my husband and the children and depend upon my male provider. I have never wanted to be that and I continue to feel the same way today. I have come very far in my educational and professional life that I will not leave it for anything in the world. I am self-reliant, self-sufficient and independent. I understand that it is not all bad to be a traditional woman, but my personality will not allow me to. Once I achieve my goals, I will devote myself to a relationship and to a family. I will have an equality with my other. That person will know that I can do with or without them.
Voloshin, Beverly R. The limits of domesticity: the female Bildungsroman in America, 1820-1870. Women’s Studies. University of Rochester. 1984. Print.
