Day 1 - Women in Literature

When signing up for an upper-level English course to fulfill my undergraduate requirements, this course, Women in Literature, particularly caught my attention. Especially in a time such as ours, when for example, the American Presidency is for the first time being tossed back and forth between an African American and a woman, I believe it is crucial to understand the women of our past in order to more thoroughly appreciate the women of today and our future. I have hardly had any exposure to women’s literature per se, and that is largely a reason for my enrollment in this class.

One woman for whom I hold a deep respect for is the women’s suffragist Susan B. Anthony, partly because I recently transferred from the University of Rochester in New York where she studied, and more so because I believe the woman’s right to vote in the United States was a critical moment in establishing American women’s identity and allowing the voices of millions of mothers, wives, sisters and daughters around the country to finally be heard.

I am expecting this course to help me develop an appreciation for women’s roles in society in various social contexts. Through the most difficult of times, such as slavery and the World Wars, or through the most prosperous of times such as the Roaring Twenties, women have served crucial roles which certainly deserve our attention.