Gender Norms and Female Empowerment in Women in Love

Introduction: Contradictions of Female Liberation

Lawrence's novel Women in Love encapsulates the social, political, and economic climate of the fin de siècle, particularly the phenomena of a burgeoning middle class and bourgeoisie. It is within this particular social framework that it becomes possible for women to assert themselves and help transform gender norms in Western society. Underprivileged women, on the other hand, do not have the luxury of deciding whether or not to work or marry, or whether to attend art school in London as Gudrun Brangwen did. Lawrence examines gender roles, norms, and sexuality with depth and scrutiny. Both male and female homosexuality are addressed frankly. However, it is the liberation of women from the stranglehold of patriarchy that forms one of the novel's most compelling themes.

Lawrence does not paint an idealistic picture of womanhood, femininity, or matriarchy. Rather, the author shows how difficult it was for women to straddle two worlds: the world of the Victorian past and the world of the modernist future. The women in Women in Love, as well as the men, simultaneously embrace and reject the new paradigm of egalitarian gender norms. In Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence writes about deeply conflicting, contradictory notions of female empowerment and self-sufficiency.

Patriarchy and the Brangwen Sisters' World

Gudrun and Ursula Brangwen do not begin the novel as brash, bold, or unconventional female characters. In fact, patriarchy prevails in the sisters' lives from the outset. The opening line of the novel underscores the way patriarchy will continue to haunt the Brangwen sisters as well as the male friends they meet later: "Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen sat one morning in the window-bay of their father's house in Beldover, working and talking. Ursula was stitching a piece of brightly-coloured embroidery." The mention of the "father's house" symbolizes patriarchal lineage and the dependency of the two women on their father's estate. Thus, issues related both to class and gender are raised simultaneously.

The two women are independent in the sense that they are not yet married, but they are still completely beholden to their father — a male figure who remains almost anonymous throughout the novel. Lawrence therefore presents a contradiction from the very opening of Women in Love. Two women long for creative self-expression outside of the confining roles of wife and mother, yet they are only privileged to experience or even contemplate the notion of gender role liberation because they are wealthy, and they are only wealthy because of their father. This vicious cycle and co-dependence on patriarchy is a prevailing theme in the novel. Patriarchy continues to shape and define Ursula and Gudrun's characters, as well as those around them. Their struggle to assert their identity from within a patriarchal framework while still attempting to subvert male authority is the central challenge the sisters face.

Chapter one of the novel sets the stage for the character development of the two sisters, and also for the development of the core theme related to female empowerment and a new order of matriarchy. Gudrun asks her sister Ursula if she wants to get married. Simply posing the question is a remarkable thing, for many women at the turn of the century would have viewed marriage as a matter not of choice but of obligation. Yet Gudrun asks innocently and matter-of-factly, as if there is a genuine choice to be made. This suggests that Lawrence is reflecting a major transformation in gender norms during the time of writing Women in Love.

Marriage, Choice, and Feminist Refusal

Just a few lines later, however, Lawrence seems to contradict the potentially liberating conversation the women are having. Just as soon as Gudrun and Ursula begin discussing whether it is worthwhile to marry, Gudrun states plainly that marriage might put her "in a better position than you are in now." Just as the opening sentence about the father's estate reveals that patriarchy remains the prevailing paradigm, this statement also suggests that even the liberated Brangwen sisters believe they might not be able to achieve financial independence without a male benefactor. Marriage is presented here not as something that will make the women happy, but as that which will make them financially stable. The women do question the reality of patriarchy, but they also understand that relatively few avenues for female self-sufficiency exist in their world.

The sisters develop a rather cold-hearted view toward marriage, suggesting that they sense marriage would mean sacrificing their self-esteem. Gudrun states, "You don't think one needs the experience of having been married?" She and Ursula perceive marriage as "just an experience," which is itself a liberating, feminist thought. Ursula replies that marriage is "bound to be, in some way or other," an experience, then adds that it is "Possibly undesirable, but bound to be an experience of some sort." Calling marriage categorically "undesirable" is a strongly feminist statement.

The sisters continue to disparage the social institution of marriage. They want to break free from patriarchy and yet are terrified to do so, as if it would mean jumping off a cliff: "'Isn't it an amazing thing,' cried Gudrun, 'how strong the temptation is, not to!' They both laughed, looking at each other. In their hearts they were frightened." They are "frightened" of what they would do, be, and become as single women. Lawrence goes so far as to suggest that the Brangwen sisters' sense of empowerment is connected to their resistance to heterosexual convention: "It's just impossible" to envision marriage, Ursula notes. "The man makes it impossible" (Chapter 1).

Moreover, neither Ursula nor Gudrun seems to want children, and both question the automatic expectation that women will reproduce: "Do you feel like that?" asked Gudrun. "I get no feeling whatever from the thought of bearing children." The sisters agree that having children is not a defining feature of the feminine experience: "Perhaps it isn't genuine,' she faltered. 'Perhaps one doesn't really want them, in one's soul — only superficially'" (Chapter 1). The sisters are exploring the notion that women have been systematically oppressed by being ushered into the roles of wives and mothers without consideration of their own desires. Gudrun displayed her proud independent spirit by attending school alone in London; Ursula achieves self-sufficiency through her work as a teacher.

Conclusion: An Unfinished Liberation

Women in Love presents a realistic vision of what it means to change gender norms and norms related to human sexuality: the change is neither instantaneous nor idealistic. Female power is a conflicting issue in the novel — 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 who are aware of their own personal power and unwilling to conform to social standards of gender identity. These same two women, Ursula and Gudrun, are nonetheless boxed in by the remaining walls of male heterosexual hegemony. The novel's enduring relevance lies in this honest, unresolved tension: the feminist impulse is real, urgent, and visible, but the structural conditions that would make it fully realizable have not yet arrived.

Work Cited

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