Virginia Woolf and Margaret Mead

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf's essay entitled "Shakespear's Sister" was originally delivered to female students at two Oxford colleges where she was highly aware of the nature of her audience. She specifically displays this by looking back to the past of how women used to be treated and how the women she was speaking to now were trying to change that narrative. She really made sure to call to action the students she was talking to so that they really express themselves through their writing.

She makes sure to mention the chapter headings of Trevelyan's History of England such as The Crusades and The Hundred Years War. She was making her point that historians were never concerned with women in any aspect, all they wanted to document was men's accomplishments and failures. Women were present during all of those times even though no one ever talks about it and men would not have been able to get through those times without women.

Woolf would probably propose some important changes in society so that women would have more freedom of creativity. She would probably propose that women should be able to make their own choices and given the space to create. And that women should not be tied down to their family and husband's expectations of being a homemaker.

Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead studied gender roles and she observed that in different societies men and women display their roles in different ways. She saw that in her society women were forced into a role that was deemed acceptable by years of social norms. However, in other cultures, she saw that women were taught that they do not have to fit the fluffy gender role that other cultures have. She also noticed that men in her society were forced into the role of being tough and dominant gender role. But, in other cultures, she saw that men could also be encouraged to be compassionate. Because of this men and women are stuck in these roles. As a result of this, we don't see as many women that speak their mind and fewer men in nontraditional roles. Fewer people feel like they have the freedom to do what they want and love. Because of the standardization of gender roles, our culture has created tensions between individuals that believe that those roles should be followed and ones that believe that said roles are fluid. Our modern industrialized society should take note of the ways of "primitive" cultures because then maybe we would not be as sensitive to gender roles and sex.