10/4 Women and Society

If the education of the woman is focused on developing only those skills and behaviors required of a wife and mother, how could she fend for herself after the loss of her husband, or her father should she never marry? Wakefield’s Reflections gives some possibilities for the woman in need of maintaining her own living, but even these only bring in a meager wage if any at all. The woman is set up in this society as a means for man to gain happiness, pleasure, and, in some cases, a bit of fortune to add to his own. Even upon the demise of her husband, it seems to be expected that a woman is incapable of maintaining a fortune suitable to that which she was accustomed under his protection.

            With Smith, we tossed around the idea of the underappreciated wife and mother. Smith portrayed this kind of character in all her works as a means of expressing her own unhappiness with this same notion that Wakefield and the other’s consider that the woman is only as good as what she can offer the men of her society. The education of women being primarily focused on child-rearing and husband-pleasing is a failure and an insult to the women of the society. Is it not also a failure to the society? If women are focused only on marriage, their “universal prize”, how then could they work to benefit society as a whole? How can women learn to fend for themselves if they are expected to rely on the experiences of others and the protection of their husbands? As has been mentioned in class, women are never allowed the opportunity to grow and act as an independent adult in the society of this age because they are forced to remain children, even once they have been passed off to their husbands. Yet, the female authors we’re hearing from are showing that their capacities for survival are not dependent on their husband’s protection or his wealth and in some cases the husband’s “protection” can be just as dangerous to the woman’s wellbeing as his death—looking back to Smith once again, who spent some years supporting her husband with her writing.