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For hundreds of years women have been oppressed because of a common misbelief that women are inferior in some way to men. In addition to gender issues, poor women are doubly oppressed because not only are they women, but they also have undesirable economic positions. In the following pages articles and stories from class will be used as proof to support that poor women deal with double the oppression that more affluent women must face, whether it be in the United States or on the other side of the world.
In certain cases the women that are dealing with the double oppression because of their gender and their economic status are oppressed a bit more by affluent women who feel it is their responsibility to help the less fortunate. Yet the women from lower classes do not want to be looked at as if they are the less fortunate. Nawal El Saadawi’s author statement states, “we are oppressed because we are women and we are poor” (155). El Saadawi has experienced that because she is an Arab woman, and therefore is not from a First World country, she has been looked down upon because of both her womanhood and her economic status. However, she has also been confronted in a situation where another woman of a higher social class felt sorry and obligated to help El Saadawi because of her poor Arabic background. El Saadawi writes, “I am frequently asked by Western women… ‘You have come from an impoverished, backward country. How can we help you?’” It seems that the American women that El Saadawi recollects may have neglected to remember that there are many impoverished women in America as well as in Arabic countries. In other words, in this situation a woman of a higher class is looking down upon a woman of a lower class. El Saadawi sees certain differences between the way poor and affluent women are treated and writes, “My point is that we must recognize the similarities in our oppression and fight oppression together” (156). El Saadawi is saying that all women are equal, regardless of the amount in their bank account, and instead of oppressing one another we should all work together.
Poor women face more obstacles for the mere fact that they are poor women. Poor women are further disadvantaged because of their place in society and are often not only looked down upon by other women, but are also forced into less than desirable jobs because they are not offered suitable education or even any education at all. Secondly, poor women have harder times getting jobs and furthering their careers because they have less of an opportunity of attending college due to a lack of funds. Poor women are then faced with a less than adequate education, if they are fortunate enough to get any education at all. Jayawardena writes, “Gandhi was equally aware that the position and role of women differed from class to class” (5). A huge reason for this difference in positions and roles is because poor women are just not getting the same education as affluent women.
In Kumari Jayawardena’s article on women in India she writes, “There had been many educated women in the upper classes, but no general education was available to women” (87). Often, it seems completely unnecessary to affluent people that poor women may prefer to be educated as well. An assumption is made that because they are
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poor they are probably less than intelligent and can only do less demanding jobs or should just remain at home with the children. The mold that upper-class women are to break out of so that they can go to school and get a real job is not unbreakable for poor women, only more difficult because they have to fight through the additional dilemma of being poor and not having the finances for school. Jayawardena goes on to write, “Although some women benefited from access to schools and universities, even in the most educationally advanced states of India the vast majority of girls did not attend school” (8). It is still apparent that oppression exists for all women, but in instances of education poor women are missing out on some of the opportunities that affluent women are offered. For example, “education for women was mainly confined to the larger cities and towns and served the needs of the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie” (Jayawardena 8). Since poor women have barely any money there is rarely a second thought given to their education.
Jayawardena brings up several other points that support that poor women face double oppression in her essay “Reformism and Women’s Rights in Egypt.” She writes, “The daughters of rich families had been educated at home; girls from poor families could attend the kuttabs where the Koran was taught by rote together with some reading and writing” (Jayawardena 16). While wealthy women are finally beginning to get more rights involving education the less fortunate women are being left behind. The poor women have no options for educating themselves except to give up altogether or gather
in groups, while affluent women are getting educated in the comfort of their own homes.
If a poor woman wants to be educated she has to make an effort to find some sort of educational group while all a wealthy woman had to do was request an education and someone would be at there home to service them.
Another reason that poor women face double oppression is because they are not given many choices for their stations in life. Usually the jobs available are limited, and poor women are forced into sacrificing things for themselves and their own well being while acting in ways and working in a job that they would prefer not to have.
Fiction and short stories also show how poor women are often forced into less than desirable positions. In “Master” by Angela Carter the image of women willing to sacrifice their happiness and well-being for the happiness and well-being of others is often apparent. The girl in the story is regarded as “Brown meat, brown meat” and nothing more (Carter 81). In fact, the girl is not given any choices in the matter of her own life and must sacrifice her own wishes for the demands of her family. Carter writes, “the hunter bartered, for the spare tire of his jeep, a pubescent girl as virgin as the forest that had borne her” (81). Had the girl been born into wealth she would have had to deal with the oppression of being a woman but could have avoided the double cruelty of being poor as well. Just to be sure that the reader notes the distaste that the master has toward the girl Carter writes, “he saw only a piece of curious flesh he had not paid much for” (8). He regards her as a piece of meat because she is a woman and looks even further down his nose at her because he knows that she is literally not worth much money wise. Women are so looked down upon, or are so far down the list of important
things, that the girl’s father shows no remorse for having sold her to a stranger who speaks a language she cannot even understand. After the master and the girl have moved
away from her home village Carter writes, “the girl’s father made sandals from the rubber tire to shoe his family’s feet and they walked a little way into the twentieth century in them, but not far” (8). Since the family is of a lower class and they are not financially comfortable the father is willing to sell his little girl so that he and the rest of his family might survive for another generation. The girl knows that her family will benefit from her being sold so she goes with the master without a fight. Carter describes the way that the girl deals with the situation, “she had the immoveable smile of a cat, which is forced by physiology to smile whether it wants to or not” (8). She behaves in this manner because she does not have much other choice. She knows that she was born a woman and must deal with the things that will oppress her.
Another story that shows instances of women and sacrifice is “Breast-Giver” by Mahasweta Devi. Throughout the story the main character’s, Jashoda’s, actions are encouraged by her gender and economic status. When Jashoda’s husband injures himself and the outlook for the future is less than picture perfect Devi writes that “Jashoda had fasted at the mother’s temple, had gone through a female ritual, and had traveled to the outskirts to pray at the feet of the local guru” (4). Jashoda does everything that she possibly can do as a female to ensure her husband’s health and safety. In fact, the behavior Jashoda exhibits is typical of the women in her class. Devi writes, “Jashoda is fully an Indian woman, whose unreasonable, unreasoning, and unintelligent devotion to
her husband and love for her children have been kept alive” (4). It is common for woman of her status to put everything else ahead of themselves, so when this tragedy befalls Jashoda’s husband she is quick to act in the manner which is expected of her. In stereotypical fashion “Jashoda’s good fortune was her ability to bear children” (Devi ). Since Jashoda excels so greatly at her ability to bear and raise children she seems the logical woman to become the breast-giver for much of the community. In other words, because she is a poor woman she is the rational choice for breast-feeding the children of well-to-do women who are eager to maintain their figures for their husbands satisfactions. Finally, her death is a result of the position she was forced to take in order for others to prosper.
Isabelle Eberhardt also presents various ways in which a poor woman is forced into making certain sacrifices just in order to stay alive in her short story “Achoura.” After Achoura is “married off too young” she “suffered the pain that comes with longing for freedom” and takes off to a career of selling her body (Eberhardt ). Achoura is a slightly different character than the women in the other stories discussed. She is forced out of her home and is left with no choice but to find some sort of income and ends up choosing one of the few professions available to her, prostitution. Eberhardt writes, “Like all women of her region, Achoura considered the sale of her body the only escape from want that was available to women” (). The employment opportunities are so limited for Achoura that becoming a prostitute seems normal. When she falls in love
with another man he not only regards her as “common property” but lets that offend “his
innate delicacy” (Eberhardt 4). Being that he is in a much higher social class the acceptance of a relationship between them is minimal. However, her lover is not the only one who regards her as property. Eberhardt writes that Achoura was “married off too young,“ implying that she is a piece of property that her father sold before it had completely matured (). Achoura faces double oppression because she is a woman and the professions available to her are less than desirable, leaving her no option except to become a prostitute, and because she is regarded as a lower class citizen or a poor woman. In fact, the man that Achoura falls in love with, Si Mohammed, is at such an opposite end of the social ladder that his father has the ability to “obtain[ed] Achoura’s immediate expulsion from the town” (Eberhardt 5). Finally, the story closes with, “For him life had just begun, whereas for Achoura it had just ended” because he is a man and can do anything while she is only a woman who has been forced into prostitution and fallen in love with a man when she shouldn’t have (Eberhardt 6).
The evidence in the preceding pages has come from a variety of essays and short stories written by an array of talented women writers to support the fact that poor women face double the oppression that wealthier women face. There has also been proof provided that shows how parts of the added oppression that poor women must face involves being looked down upon by upper-class women, getting a weak education, and sacrifice. In short, being a woman comes with many setbacks that one must overcome, but being a poor woman means you have twice as many of those setbacks to triumph over.
Works Cited
Carter, Angela. “Master.” Fireworks Nine Profane Pieces. London Penguin, 187.
Carter, Angela. “The Loves of Lady Purple.” Fireworks Nine Profane Pieces. London Penguin, 187.
Devi, Mahasweta. “Breast-Giver.” In Other Worlds. New York Methuen, 187.
Eberhardt, Isabelle. “Achoura.” The Oblivion Seekers. San Francisco City Lights Books, 175.
El Saadawi, Nawal. “Author Statement.”
Jayawardena, Kumari. “Reformism and Women’s Rights in Egypt.” Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World. New Jersey Zed Books Ltd, 14.
Jayawardena, Kumari. “Women, Social Reform and Nationalism in India.” Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World. New Jersey Zed Books Ltd, 14.
Suleri, Sara. “Excellent Things in Women.” Raritan.
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