"It has made me worship you more then ever."(Hawthorne366) These are the words women used to speak in America. Not only did they worship men but they could not even do the same things as the men they loved and worshiped. This is because by a patriarchy in America that has existed for years and some may still say exists now. Patriarchy is defined by Webster's New World Dictionary as "social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan or family, the legal dependence of wives and children, and the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line; broadly: control by men of a disproportionately large share of power." So basically men control the population and women m ...view middle of the document...
By the sound of her voice it is obvious that drinking alcohol is frowned upon.For a woman to be outside enjoying herself is not a normal occurrence in the patriarchy. This is exemplified when a male neighbor of the girls tells their mother that her girls are "unusually active." He is obviously hinting that women should stay in there house and their business should not be disturbed. Men are also taught not to bother women when they are in the house and they must not speak of what goes on in the house. One more thing that should not be spoken of is anything that has to do with a women's body, like a pregnancy. A pregnancy should not be spoken about because it is not something a man should worry about after all, men can not get pregnant. With all of this in mind it is hard to believe that women actually lived in this society, compared to how women are today.The women in Little Women believe they have their own society and that the men are the strange ones, or the outcasts. In this society women believe that they should vote not because they are good but because there opinion matters and they are human just like men. Men tend to disagree with this statement and say that if women did vote it would be because they are good. One more major thing that happens in a patriarchy is the fact that in order for most of women's writings had to be published under a man's name, otherwise they would not sell very many copies.In the short story "The Birthmark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne there is a patriarchy described but it differs a little bit from the patriarchy in Little Women. For example, in "The Birthmark" Aylmer, a successful scientist has a perfect wife. While she is perfect through everybody else's eyes except his, she has a very tiny birthmark on one of her cheeks in the form of a hand. Some people say the print is from a fairy that touched her when she was born making her so beautif...
