The Effect Men Have on Women

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Women have constantly been a subject of men. Whether sexually, economically, politi-cally, or socially, men have always asserted themselves as superior. Women have not taken a back seat to this injustice though. They have risen up and demanded legal and societal reforms that aim to bring equality among the sexes.

One example of male exploitation of women comes from humanity’s very existence: sexual reproduction. Simply, all humans are a product of a man and a woman and thus sex. However, men have transcended the reproductive matter of sex and have used it mainly to their enjoyment. This included sexual abuse and male trickery of the women into having sex. Because Virginia Woolf herself was sexually abused by her own brother, it can be said through the psychoanalytic literary criticism that Woolf has developed a negative view of men that cha-racterizes them as amoral and hedonistic.

Another example of male dominance over women is money. From a Marxist viewpoint, all of humanity has been in a constant struggle between two classes over money, as in the present case of men verse women. Men have secured their own future (and thus their ideology) by restricting jobs to men and paying women less money for equal pay. Also, men use the fact that they are the financial backbone of the marriage to suppress women sexually and psy-chologically, as women are forced to see themselves as a burden to men and thus remain com-placent. In A Room of One’s Own, the fictional narrator goes to the financially troubled wom-en’s universities while the male universities such as Oxbridge are financially secure. Because both colleges are gender exclusive, men either have more money than women or care more about education than women. Since both sexes care about education, men therefore has more money and is able to use that money to secure for future generations of men favorably educa-tion.

Males also controlled women politically. Until recently (for the book was written in 1929), women were not able to vote. Women’s suffrage was seen as the most important de-mand for women, though the gain was purely symbolic and not utilized completely to the women’s favor. With these “gains,” women were still unable to end de facto discrimination against them as well as other women’s issues. Women have also been largely discouraged or prevented from obtaining government jobs, as a women having jurisdiction over men may be very controversial and demeaning to men.

Last and most important, men have asserted themselves over women socially. Women tradition has long been established by precedents, of which men have served to create. Women are then forced into their native habitats, of which have proved successful, in men’s eyes, for thousands of years. In the novel, women are discouraged from breaking the status quo because that would ultimately lead to their failure. The example of Shakespeare’s sister proves how women were not considered for anything other than producing children, especially male child-ren and thus continuing the family tradition. Men have always been deemed the smarter of the two sexes and thus have controlled the educational and political systems. Women’s place in society is thus maintained by constant checking of their advances by males as well as a general defeatist attitude that immobilizes women to remain complacent.

Despite male dominance of women, women have gained several rights and are in the process of gaining more. They have shown that through grass-roots efforts and perseverance that gains can be made and their lives can improve. As more women become successful, culture and the views of women will change, allowing them to get past certain societal impediments such as the glass ceiling. Action is needed not only by women but also by men, who will realize that equality is better for everyone and morally right. The emancipation of women from men will free them from the male grip of inferiority and allow them to contribute greater to society.