Female power is presented in conflicting, contradictory ways in Women in Love. The increased status and social power that women of privilege have can cause upheaval and serious conflicts. Power can be misdirected away from self-empowerment to power over others, especially over men. The relationship between Gudrun and Gerald is a complicated one because it is not just Gudrun's personal power that causes the tension and abuse, but also Gerald's own lack of self-awareness and self-insight. His suicide shows that Gerald self-imploded, unable to cope with his own psychological turmoil. Gudrun remains in control of her own life. Her self-sufficiency is also a conflicting issue, one that challenges social norms related to gender and also one that undermines the status of patriarchy itself. For example, when Gerald does die, Gudrun feels very little and does not immediately cry. The narrator describes her reaction as "coldly at a loss," while the woman who delivers the news perceives her as a "cold, cold woman," (Chapter 31). Her not wanting to "make a scene" shifts the burden of emotional stoicism towards females and makes Gudrun into a stereotypically masculine...

Lawrence deliberately upsets gender roles, norms, and stereotypes to show that it is socialization and not biological determinism that make men and women different. In the same way that Ursula and Gudrun both feel ambivalence about the roles of wife and mother, Gudrun's attitudes towards sexuality and emotional intensity show that on a subconscious level at least she is breaking free from societal constraints.
Women in Love presents a realistic vision of what it means to change gender norms and norms related to human sexuality: the change is not instantaneous or idealistic. Female power is a conflicting issue in Women in Love: it is not destructive on its own but only because patriarchy continues to have a stranglehold on women in modern society. Lawrence offers two powerful female protagonists aware of their own personal power and unwilling to conform to social standards of gender identity. These same two women, Ursula and Gudrun, are boxed in by the remaining walls of male heterosexual hegemony.

Work Cited

Lawrence, DH Women in Love. eText online: http://www.online-literature.com/dh_lawrence/women_in_love/