The Oppression Of Women In Herland
889 Words4 Pages
Throughout the arguments by Wollstonecraft and Mill, the customs of society primarily created by men, support the oppression and prejudice against women. In turn, this has impeded the development of a women’s morality. So, what if there were no men to impede women? In 1915, Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman proposed a fictional society that was comprised entirely of women in the novel, “Herland”. The society is isolated from the outside world and the women reproduce through parthenogenesis, or asexual reproduction (“Feminist Ethics”). The society is an ideal social order for women that was free from the domination of men. The novel explores how women’s morality thrives under the ideal societal conditions for women. The novel is written from the perspective of a male explorer by the name of Vandyck “Van” Jennings. Van is accompanied by two other explorers, Terry O. Nicholson, and Jeff Margrave to find and explore the mysterious society that was rumored to be only inhabited by women. When the three men arrive in Herland, they must confront the prejudice and mistaken notions they have about women in society (“Feminist Ethics”). Van is a sociologist who is quiet by nature and mildly sexist, but is objective. He becomes aware of his own false beliefs about women as he compares and contrasts the society of Herland to the world at home. Terry is a friend of the explorers and displays a classic chauvinist personality and is the most sexist of the three explorers. Terry is