By the 19th century, women began to take larger roles in society and project their voices through their writings (Bomarito, 1). Women writers often questioned themselves, consequently forcing them to apprehend their writing careers. Although they have attained more admiration and respect since the 19th century, they still experience difficulties amid the disrespect they hear from male writers, readers, and critics (Bomarito, 1). One of the biggest issues of women's literature was the role of women within the larger American society. Women’s writing offers a unique view into the female American experience. Many women changed the course of history through their work such as Maya Angelou, Zora Neale Hurtson or Emily Dickinson.
America faced many changes after the Civil War. The country was in a period of transformation, including political, economic, social, and literary shifts (Young 10). As the country emerged into the Industrial Revolution female authors were building a place for themselves literature (Cook 3). The feminist movement questioned the role of women in society and female authors reacted by creating works that represented strong, self-reliant women (Hall 1996).
Women’s suffrage fought against the restrictions enforced by a patriarchal society that had expectations of women as submissive, wife, and mother relegated to the home (Chapman 1). U.S. women writers from a variety of racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds published numerous short stories, novels, poems, plays, essays in support of woman suffrage (Chapman 1). The feminist movement had a huge victory with the right for women to vote in 1920 (Eisenberg 1). Literature of the era reflects many changes represented in realistic writing of America (Eisenberg 1). Women’s literature reflected the feminist movement through theme, characterization, and situations (Bomarito 345).
Several social issues influenced women’s literature during this period and the feminist movement strongly shaped writing. Whether women writers of the era were part of the feminist movement or not, they all voiced similar views. Literature of this period called attention to inequalities and presented the affects of a patriarchal society. Most of their works had a purpose of presenting readers with realistic views of women’s intellect, desires, and potential and the limitations of a submissive domestic life (Bomarito 345). In "The Bell Jar" Sylvia Plath offers a reflection on womanhood and presents a complex, often alarming portrait of what it meant to be female in 1950s America. She exposes the harsh expectations of virginity, maternity, and wifeliness that society holds for young women. Because the novel is often interpreted as an autobiographical work, it embodies the real hardships that women and female writers experienced. Additionally, In Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" she explores inequality, both racial and sexual, and how it shaped a woman's experience and identity. The memoir accounts the experience of a black woman’s life in America, and her womanhood. She repeatedly recognizes that being a girl is a disadvantage. Maya Angelou is possibly the most renowned African-American autobiographer and poet. She broke the pattern when she wrote her autobiographies in a nontraditional structure that entirely changed the genre. Angelou shared her controversial life stories without censorship. Her bluntness and distinctive literary style broke the limits for all women writers and changed the face of autobiographies.
In the late 19th century, much of American society believed that women were inferior to men and should be dependent on their husbands and other male figures (Bomarito 9). Many women writers represented the stereotypical relationship between men and women in their writing. Zora Neale Hurtston explores traditional gender roles in "Their eyes were watching god". It embodies a series of relationships with different men and introduces independence and desire as two main themes. The main character could not find beauty in her relationships as neither of them treated her as equal. "Machinal" by Sophie Treadwell symbolized the dynamics of romantic relationships in the early 20th Century. In this male-focused atmosphere, women were expected to concede to their husbands, forfeiting their own individuality in order to maintain respectable marriages. Much of Kate Chopin’s work, “The Story of an Hour” revolves around female independence and its obstacles. The story is especially examines how a nineteenth-century woman was expected to behave in highly emotional circumstances (Bomarito Vol 3, 1).
Many women fought for their education rights through their writing. Women's access to higher education increased exponentially during this period, providing them with the ability to develop their work. For years, men harshly criticized women writers for being less capable. Emma Hart, an educator and writer who dedicated her work to women's education, proposed a plan to members of the legislature in New York to improve female education (Willard).
At the beginning of the 19th Century women writers were mostly restricted to the genres of children's literature and poetry (Bomarito 89). However, throughout the years their writing shifted into much broader genres. Sylvia Plath was known for the confessional style of her work. She wrote about despair, violent emotion and death. Alice B. Sheldon found literary success by using the pen name of James Triptee in order to be able to publish her work in the genre of science fiction that was dominated by men writers. She says, "A male name seemed like good camouflage. I had the feeling that a man would slip by less observed. I've had too many experiences in my life of being the first woman in some damned occupation" (Phillips 47). Elizabeth Jane Howard argues, "I feel because we started writing novels really before men on the whole, they don't want us to be even good at that" (Silverman).
The image of the woman poet, or ‘poetess,’ as she might still be called, was much more stereotyped and limiting than that of the novelist. Emily Dickenson is renowned as the founder of a "uniquely American poetic voice" (Bomarito Vol 3, 47). Questioning the nature of immortality and death. She was an prominent poet whose style was unlike anyone else’s. Dickinson used exceptional techniques, such as short lines, slant rhyme and unusual capitalization and punctuation that gathered both attention and criticism. During the late 19th and early 20th century, critics rejected Dickinson’s individual style and literary ability, but later praised her originality and talent as a pre-modernist poet.
The early decades of the twentieth century, often referred to as the Progressive Era, saw the appearance of a new image of women in society which had undergone a marked transformation from the demure, frail, female stereotype of the late Victorian Era. By the mid-twentieth century, women throughout the Western world had completely redefined their roles in almost every social, political, and cultural sphere. While the fight for equal rights and recognition for women would continue into the 1950s and beyond, the first major steps towards such changes began at the advent of the twentieth century, with women writers, photographers, artists, activists, and workers blazing a new trail for generations of women to follow.
Although women writers have gained more admiration and success since the 19th century, they still struggle with disrespect from male writers, readers, and critics (Howell 25).
Male criticism and the lack of gender equality in the literary world is not the only thing that women writers face in the 21st century (Howell 25). Within fiction, there is an arising category labeled as “women's fiction,” which has been listed in a variety of online bookstores, such as Amazon. The 19th century women writers and contemporary women writers in the 20th and 21st centuries share similar concerns regarding male criticism and the lack of recognition and respect they attain, but the growth of the media has introduced a much more complex issue for women writers—that of organization (Howell 25).
Since the 19th century, issues concerning the status of women writers have changed in America. The success of women writers have increased and now, they do not face as much unjust gender based remarks regarding their writing. Women—and their voices – have emerged and been heard by the public with more recognition and success (Howell 25). However, the issue of gender inequality still remains in the literary world. Man still stands as the dominant figure.