Female roles have undergone massive changes from the Victorian ages to the modern age. Writers such as Simone de Beauvoir, John Mill Stuart, and Virginia Woolf have been influential by using their literature to highlight and educate the society about the inequality between man and woman and the subordination of woman. The early societies up to the beginning of the nineteenth century taught their girls to submit to the men. The result of these teachings was a whole generation of women who are excluded in not only professional matters but also education wise. Religion leaders further fuelled the subordination of women through religious teachings.Men oppress women by characterizing them as being in opposition to them: man occupies the subject while the woman is the object.

Women have been subordinate to men for thousands of years. Simone de Beauvoir highlighted several reasons that resulted into women’s traditional subordination to men. Firstly, the male is described to be humanity. The man can think of himself without a woman. The male, therefore, defines the woman as an object: relative to him. Woman is not an autonomous being. She cannot think of herself without aman. She follows the decree of man. In most instances, the woman is inessential as opposed to essential. Secondly, women lack means of organizing themselves into a unit. The women have no history, no religion of their own, and lack the togetherness thatcreate community feeling. They furthermore lived dispersed among the males in residences and workplaces. Thus, they are firmly attached to males such as husbands and fathers more than they are attached to other women. In addition, Simone de Beauvoir point out that thereexist a strong bond between a man and a woman. This bond is difficult to be broken as the woman experience a strong attachment to the man. The relationship is defined to be that of a master and slave. The two are united by economic need in which case the slave, woman, is not liberated. Thirdly, a woman is not socially emancipated through the man’s need of sexual desire and the desire for offspring. The master and slave are thus united by a reciprocal need. Fourthly, Simone de Beauvoir establishes that the clergy, scientists, and writers have shown that the subordinate position of the woman is willed in heaven and is advantageous on earth. Philosophers and priests have reflected this domination wish through the invention of different religions. Such views are shared by St. Thomas when he on his part pronounced woman to be an ‘imperfect man’, and ‘incidental’ being. Aristotle, philosopher, also concurs when he said that the female is by virtue the lack of certain qualities. He further reiterated that the female nature is afflicted by natural effectiveness. Moralists and satirists have added their opinion on the weakness of women.

From the reasons that De Beauvoir’s establishes, it is seen that she was showing the fundamental oppression of the women by the men who characterized them as others. She establishes her point of view to be that the man occupies the definite role of a subject while the woman is relegated to being the object. A man is given a description of transcendent, absolute, and essential while the woman is incomplete, inessential, and mutilated. She further points out that the man extends to the world and imposes his will on it while the woman is doomed to inwardness and awaits on the woman.

John Mill Stuart in the Subjection of Women seeks to challenge the notion held by most people that women are unequal to men by nature. Stuart argues, “The legal subordination of one sex to the other is wrong in itself, and one of the chief hindrances to human improvement.” He points out that the systematic subordination that is perpetuated by men against women should be replaced by a principle that admits no privilege or disability on either side. This principle will ensure perfect equality. Furthermore, Stuart points out the conversion of physical fact to a legal right. This conversion is the historical foundation of subjection. In addition, Stuart points out that the subjection of women is based upon the pre-modern law of force and not on the use of modern reason. The subjection of women, therefore,presents a system of unproven theory of subjugation of the weaker female sex to the stronger male sex. Since there is no other existing system that has been tried, Stuart hopes to come up with a new system of equality, which has its basis on the theory.

Virginia Woolf,as with Stuart and De Beauvoir, is particularly influential on feministic literature. According to her, women in history have been busy but poor. They have had the responsibilities of bearing children and tending for their husbands. They possess imperfect education and a little money they have is usually under the control of their male counterparts. The women carry on their shoulders the weight of their supposed mental inferiority and social decorum. In addition, the pre-nineteenth-century women earned their living by the man-treasured ornament: moral character. However, Mrs. Woolf points out that although by looking  at the historical background the woman has come from afar, her emancipation is not yet complete. She argues that thepresent woman is still influenced by interruptionsandis financially dependent on the man. Mrs. Woolf exhorts the women to break free from the man mirroring function and conduct careful examination of masculine reasoning and concepts. In her point of view, the world is void of women tragedies, epics, and critical examination of men yet is full of men’s dedicated investigations and opinions on women.

Mrs. Woolf argues towards the present woman who can to obtain good education and enjoy the other benefits of life as a man. The modern woman harbors no hatred for their own and uses their talents without fear or discrimination. She further holds onto the view that women should be solid and not be marred by sentimentality and hysteria of the past years.

Subordination of women has occurred for thousands of years. A lot of information has been inked by many authors regarding the possible reasons for subordination of women to men. Simone de Beauvoir identified religious leaders who showed that subordination was willed in heaven. She further expressed the women lack of organization into units, which would offer them a bargaining power. John Mill Stuart, on the other hand seeks to object the societal inequality of viewing the sexes: weaker female sex and the stronger male sex. Another influential feministic writer, Virginia Woolf held the point of view that historically the woman has come from far. However, she is not completely emancipated. Men oppress women by characterizing them as being in opposition to them: man occupies the subject while the woman is the object.

Works cited

John, S. & Harriet T. Thoughts on the subjection of women

Simone, B. The Second Sex (1949)

Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own.                1929