Women Are Not Inferior

"Gosh!" said Terry, after a while.

"Only women there--and children," Jeff urged excitedly.

"But they look--why, this is a CIVILIZED country!" I protested.

"There must be men." "Of course there are men," said Terry. "Come on, let's find 'em."

This week we've been reading Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Along with the annoying (but historically accurate because of the time period) sexism and blatant lack of respect for women, the first 8 chapters of Herland are polluted with the idea that women are the inferior gender; that we somehow need men to survive. It's sad #tbh, that they think this way. These 3 men (Van, Terry and Jeff) have stumbled upon a beautifully kept new land, presumably built by women, and they can't enjoy it because they're worrying about finding men that just aren't there.

The women of #Herland are strong, badass women that need to be taken seriously. They were able to forge a new land, fend for themselves, educate themselves, take care of the land they're living on, stay fit and all that jazz. They were also able to raise their children in a land where they deemed what was necessary and what wasn't. That is something that should not be frowned upon or trivialized. These women had the rare opportunity to bring up their children in a world that portrayed women as more than just caretakers; more than the inferior sex. If you look around today, yes, there are strong women out there. However, for one strong woman, there are 5 weak men attempting to drown her voice out. Seriously, take a look at women in media, for example. Here's some handy dandy statistics*:

• Women earned less—and minority women, substantially less—than men at Dow Jones and its flagship international newspaper, The Wall Street Journal

• Females constituted 30 percent of playwrights and 33 percent of directors for five seasons’ worth of Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway shows at 22 theaters.

• Hollywood’s top paid union executive—a man—earned 60 percent more than the highest-paid female union executive.

Raising children in a place like #Herland is idyllic, but unfortunately damn near impossible. Women are not inferior and hopefully EVERYONE will be able to see that one day.

*Statistics pulled from: http://www.womensmediacenter.com/reports/the-status-of-women-in-u.s.-media-2017