Sociology Feminism and the Novel Women S Room

¶ … fictionalized, Marilyn French's book The Women's Room offers a telling account of gender norms, roles, and status in American society. Published in 1977, the novel depicts the emergence of feminist consciousness among middle class white women. The protagonist of the novel is Mira, who comes of age in the 1950s and evolves values distinct from those not only of her mother's generation but also of her own. Mira starts out a young woman interested in finding a partner who will not restrict her to a life of domestic servitude, which she fears throughout the novel. She eventually finds a man symbolically named Norm, who although initially seems to offer Mira an egalitarian relationship, ends up falling into his role as the "provider" of the family who takes Mira for granted and who eventually has an affair with another woman. In the meanwhile, Mira develops a series of friendships with women, revealing the unique sociological dynamics of same-sex friendships versus other types of relationships, including heterosexual and homosexual relationships. Mira ends up divorced and in a relationship with an African man, introducing race as a sociological concept too. Ultimately, Mira realizes her potential independently of men and provides an instructive guide for like-minded women.

The Women's Room is a work of fictional sociology, focused mainly on gender, social status, and the social construction of identity. Status in the society is linked directly with gender. With women persistently self-categorizing and being categorized by others as possessing inherently subordinate social status. Women are defined by their relationships with men, and they define themselves in the same way. The opening line of the novel is "Mira was hiding in the ladies' room," a line that contains some of the core themes of the book. For one, women "hide" from each other, from themselves, and from society by either living in the shadows of men or working in low-status positions that constrain their creativity and inhibit their personal power. Whereas men are taught to be assertive, women are socialized to be submissive, quiet, and demure. Women who step outside of their boundaries and roles in the society are dismissed as being uppity, upstart, or stripped from their status as "feminine" members of the society. Powerful women in a patriarchal society are deviant. Although Mira only befriends one lesbian in The Women's Room, the author does point out the intersections between gender, status, and sexuality by discussing some of more "radical" feminists in her circle at Harvard. The fact that feminism is at all viewed as being "radical" is itself a sociological statement showing that patriarchy is taken for granted as a desirable and default social institution.

The Women's Room can be used as a springboard to discuss sociological theories and concepts related to the structures and institutions that perpetuate patriarchy, and show how individuals seeking to subvert those structures and institutions are labeled as deviant. For example, the institution of marriage is portrayed strictly as a heteronormative, patriarchal social structure that stifles the emotional, intellectual, personal, and social growth of half the human population. Furthermore, the book delves deeply into gendered social norms and roles, most notably the inter-related roles of mother and of wife. These are two distinct roles, as Mira finds out in her life journey. Her role as mother has nothing to do with her role as "wife," but given her upbringing and the normative culture around her, Mira sees "wife" and "mother" as being linked. Later on and after her divorce, Mira learns that she can be a mother without sacrificing other elements of her self-empowerment. Mira becomes a self-determined woman but one who struggles incessantly with re-creating her own identity.

As Coward (1980) points out, Mira practices a form of "subversive politicalization," in which her own life, the personal aspects of herself, take on political dimensions. The personal becomes the political because the ways women choose to live their private lives and express themselves in all social domains is making a statement about their perceived status in the society. The Women's Room discusses structural issues related to women's access to political power, as women are systematically bereft of that power through patriarchal standards, norms, and institutions. Sexuality is also a domain in which politics and power intersect. French (1977) shows that there is a double standard for men and women in American society in that men are encouraged to express their sexuality. Male promiscuity is viewed as being a sign of their sexual power, whereas for women, promiscuity and sexual power is viewed as being deviant. Rape is depicted not as a crime related to sexuality or even lust, but as a crime directly linked to power. In short, rape is the extreme and pathological expression of pathological power.