Essay Contribution by Edin Beslagic
April 17, 2006

Treatment of Women in Literature From the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution

In Kevin Reilly’s “Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader,” chapters four and thirteen contain collections of literary material relating to women. The identities of women in these documents are described in terms of their relationship to men and in their roles as mothers and wives throughout time. It is fascinating how diverse is the material that Mr. Reilly uses and how different are roles of women throughout the world. Out of all the pertinent articles, I found two to have given me most insight into women’s roles: “The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan and “Commerce and Gender in Southeast Asia” by Anthony Reid. Conversely, the least insightful articles that I encountered were “How Dong Xiaowan Became My Concubine,” written by Mao Xiang and “Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz” by John E. Wills Jr. ¹

In an excerpt of “The Feminine Mystique,” the author Betty Friedan made a very clear observation of a growing sentiment that American housewives of 1950s and 1960s had: a shift in their sense of collective identities. The society indoctrinated women as professional wives, expecting them to raise children and encouraging their husbands in being the sole bread winners for the family. Although this is a biased primary account, it is a very powerful reflection of feelings in this era. I suspect that World War II accelerated this sentiment by utilizing scores of women in wartime industries, only for them to lose their jobs once soldiers returned home. ²

In “The Commerce and Gender in Southeast Asia,” Mr. Reid does an excellent job of dissecting components of a woman in societies in terms of their locally traditional roles, such as marketing and commerce. He describes sexual behavior of women in European and South-east Asian peoples and reactions of Europeans in encountering dowries; unlike the Europeans, the South-East Asian people valued women over men and huge dowries were paid for wives. European missionaries considered this to be a sale of women and found it to be distasteful. I find this interesting because Europeans failed to see the reversal of roles between the two civilizations as natural in terms of gender-oriented dowry and chastity. South-eastern Asian women engaged in sex earlier than European women and were not expected to be virgins before marriage. Europeans did not consider this reversal in roles to be a normal possibility: it reflected their deep-rooted subjugation of women. Mr. Reid went even a step further and quantified the social differences by producing congruent percentages of female participation in trade and marketing on the two continents, solidifying his argument that in some aspects Southeast Asian women were more progressive than European women.³

In a less insightful article, “How Dong Xiaowan Became My Concubine,” the writer, Mao Xiang, recounted his experiences as an artistic free spirit of the 17th century. His story isn’t very linear but it did reach a point. As Mao traveled he met a famous and beautiful artist woman and customarily negotiated her to become his concubine. The story goes into irrelevant details such as what he was eating and who he was eating with; but, it did succeed in illustrating how women were treated in that civilization. A man was expected to have a wife and concubines with everyone in the society knowing this. In his story, Mao’s wife administered financial aid to Mao’s concubine, showing how widely acceptable this arrangement was. This document is very limited in that it does not describe women outside of Mao’s circle. Secondly, I cannot conclude from reading this story that such behavior was normal since Mao may have been treated preferentially by the society for his famous poetry and calligraphy.⁴

Another article, “Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz,” did an excellent job of presenting a biography of a progressive woman in a time of conservative male-dominated society. However, this exceptional woman did not represent other women of the era. Her wealthy background and socio-political ties made her a very rare woman of the times; furthermore, the story of her extraordinary life does not describe how other women were treated by the society, giving us no useful insight outside of a single individual. ⁵

In terms of helpfulness, both primary and secondary accounts are very useful in assessing an accurate picture of women’s lives. Secondary accounts are more analytical than primary in that they break down a story into many axes of factual alignments and use multiple sources to make an accurate picture of the world. They, however, lack the human touch and emotional insight. Primary accounts relate to people better because factual coverages mix with strong emotions. Mr. Reid’s use of percentages to back up his arguments can be comfortably matched with Betty Friedan’s emotional coverage of women who were wondering just what their purpose in life is. The unsatisfactory sources of information are usually just limited in scope. Mr. Xiang tells his story well but is neither objective nor really considerate of women. John E. Wills Jr. writes an excellent biography of an extraordinary woman but that does not provide readers with an insight into an entire society.

¹ Kevin Reilly, Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader, vol. 2 (Boston: Bedford’s/St. Martin’s, 2004), 135-170, 477-515.
² Kevin Reilly, 480-483.
³ Kevin Reilly, 148-154.
⁴ Kevin Reilly, 143-147.
⁵ Kevin Reilly, 154-160.