Women's roles and contributions in society

¶ … Room of One's Own," the author discussed how men continuously perpetuated the idea that men are superior than women. Woolf asserted this position through the "looking-glass vision," in which she posits that, "[w]omen have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size." Thus, acting as looking-glasses of the society, women are then relegated to a lower status while men, having witnessed their superiority through their "perceived" 'frailty' of women, takes up a higher status superior than women. Audre Lorde in her work, "Age, Race, Class, and Sex," illustrates how different view their stratification in the society. Lorde shows how a difference of perspectives of people with different ages, classes, races, and sexes manifest the degree of his/her outlook about his/her standing or status in the society. Thus, just like what Lorde exemplifies in her essay, a white American woman might view herself as stratified based on sex while an Africa-American woman might view herself stratified based on class, race, and sex. Because of differing and not reconciled perspectives, women continue to perpetuate their role as the sector belonging to the lower strata of the society. St. Thomas Aquinas' discourse about women shows how his contentions against Aristotle's claims (that women are the "weaker sex") are false; his arguments are based on the prevailing thought during the 13th century that "female is a misbegotten male." Arguing against this, Aquinas set out to prove that on the contrary, women is equal to men, saying that, "the woman should neither use authority over man... Nor was it right for her to be subject to man's contempt as his slave."

2. Through literature, writers, both men and women, were able to express how they can contribute to social change within their society, particularly on abolishing the "isms" or stratifications in the society. Three writers, namely, "Prisons of Silence" by Janice Mirikitani, "The Welder" by Cherrie Moraga, and "Black men and public space" by Brent Staples. These three literary works illustrates how racial and sexual differences can be reconciled in a widely diverse society such as the American society. In her poem, Mirikitani shows how she can 'break out' of the "prison" she is living in, being contained in the labels of being a "woman" and a "Japanese," which manifests sexual and racial difference in a dominantly white American society. Similarly, Staples seeks understanding from his readers as he relates his life as an African-American feared by people because of his color, where he describes himself as indistinguishable from the muggers." Moraga, on the other hand, details the important role women possess as "The Welder," forming and harnessing the society she lives in. By illustrating women's importance in the society, Moraga is able to confront and made people realize that women have the "power" to function productively and effectively in their society just like men.