Written originally for Women’s Studies, a Stage 2 subject, during 2005.

Summative Assessment Task 2 – Gender Analysis Task

Gender Relations and Social Identity

All women are different. It doesn’t matter how similar they seem, they are diverse. This is due to factors such as their experiences living in different societies, under different religions, times, their private lives and the public sphere, which all go to creating the individual woman and also man. Their identity very much lies with the construction of gender based on these combining factors. So, when comparing women from different countries and time periods; it is obvious that there is a very clear contrast. Each society has its own sets of norms for expected female and male behaviours and they can limit or promote self-empowerment and self-esteem and the ability to choose their own destinies and potential in life. Most societies are patriarchal where the males hold most of the power.

“The feminist perspective looks at the many similarities between the sexes and concludes that women and men have equal potential for individual development. Differences in the realization of that potential, therefore, must result from externally imposed restraints, from the influence of social institutions and values”.

The films are set in the twentieth century, both in Western countries but in different decades. It is a time when the feminist movements were forming a strong voice but where women had mixed feelings about the whole feminist issue and very much their private spheres and individual personalities formed their own response in taking up the cause. The issue of abortion was very much a point of discussion both in the public and behind closed doors and the role of women in society was being questioned.

The female characters from Vera Drake and If These Walls Could Talk are great in comparison to each other – and, in If These Walls Could Talk’s case; even comparing the females within the same film could be extremely interesting. Vera Drake is the title character in a film set in 1950’s post-war England; she is the mother of a low income household, and she is the heart and soul of the family – but, unknown to her family, she gives illegal abortions to young girls as an act of kindness. This in itself was unusual and against the law but she felt strongly about the rights of each woman over their own body and wanted them to avoid the social stigma of unwanted pregnancies or the economic burden. If These Walls Could Talk is a collection of three short stories set in the U.S., all about women who have to deal with the possibility of having an abortion; each story is set in a different time period – 1950s, 1970s and 1990s. The women in the 1950s segment is Claire Donnelly; a young woman who’s husband was killed in war and she is now all alone – but she has gotten pregnant by her husband’s brother. If her in-laws were to find out about the pregnancy, it would shame them forever. Pregnancy out of marriage or to another man was very much frowned upon and the woman was seen as a ‘whore’ yet the man received none of this social stigma and ostracisation. She has an abortion to avoid this but because it is a backyard abortion she dies. If abortion had been legal she would not have had to resort to this and would have had an abortion in a hospital and lived. In the 1970s story a mother of five, Barbara Barrows, has just started going back to university when she finds out she has become pregnant again. She has to give up her education to have the baby. Women today can do both but her own upbringing was more traditional and had instilled in her the belief that abortion is morally wrong and women belong firstly in the home and secondly in the work force. There was not the support there is today for women to be able to follow careers and have a family. Finally in the 1990s segment, a teenager, Christine Cullen, becomes pregnant, and must decide if raising a child alone is the right thing to do or if an abortion is the path for her. She has an abortion and feels very emotionally upset but not morally as in her society many people support abortion and it is available legally under strict guidelines. They each dealt with their pregnancies in a different way based on their own societies view of women at the time.

All the women from the two films, with the exception of Claire Donnelly, have something in common – their private sphere. All these women are comforted and nurtured in their private lives. Vera Drake and Barbara Barrows have their families who love and support them, and Christine Cullen has her best friend Patti. Christine and Patti are equals – but Vera Drake and Barbara Barrows are more than that in their households; they are almost a figurehead or authority figure. They both run these families, even more so than their husbands because they are always out working – and when the husbands are there, the house doesn’t turn into a patriarchy; the decisions made are quite equitable. Claire Donnelly, though, is different – her household is a complete matriarchy because she is the only one there to make the decisions, which, ultimately only affect her. The difference between Vera Drake and If These Walls Could Talk’s Claire Donnelly to Barbara Barrows and Christine Cullen when comparing their lives in the public sphere is interesting; because Vera and Claire are more submissive and are dominated by males in the public eye – this was a very common occurrence in the 1950s; a time practically situated between the 1st and 2nd waves of feminism. Barbara lives in the 1970s, and benefits from the new way of thinking that many had in that time period – it was in this time that the idea of equality really seemed to be a possibility. Claire seems to be able to talk to males as an equal; not feeling dominated at all. Christine, though, is the most “modern” woman mentioned – as she has the exact same rights as a male; due to the efforts of women’s activists in the decades leading up to the 90’s.

Vera Drake and Claire Donnelly both live in post-war 1950s; a time men were called heroes for defending their country. When the soldiers arrived back home from the war, women, like the rest of the country who didn’t actively help the country in the time of crisis, felt like they owed something to the men who fought. In my opinion, this was one of the main reasons why women were so submissive in those times – they thought “These men have been fighting for their country and their lives; while I’m just a woman – what’ve I ever done that was that significant?” Domestic duties and child rearing or ‘women’s type’ work such as a cleaner or nurse were not deemed siginificant or valued as much as fighting in a war or providing money from working in male dominated and accepted jobs such as legal, medical and banking jobs. Their occupations were the best that they could get; yet they were still extremely far away from being at a “dignifying” level like the males were. Vera is a maid, cleaning up other people’s mess and Claire is a nurse – she would never have even considered becoming a doctor. It is not their fault either, it’s the way that they were brought up, and it was the way their parents were brought up – gender construction - their mothers and fathers were roles models and gender socialisation created in them the acceptance of females as nurturing, submissive, domesticated and belonging at home whilst males were intellectual, aggressive, dominating and providing the economic support for the family. This therefore limits the females’ choices in life and their own expectations of themselves are also limited because they do not think of careers in medicine, law and banking because they are for males. Even though the times changed around them, they needed to adjust their mindset to match it; and they couldn’t do that without an upbringing that allowed freedom of speech and freedom of thought fro both males and females. Barbara is in the middle of this change – she was “traditionally” raised and taught how a woman should act; polite non opinionated and yet, when she was in her 30’s, the way women started to have freedom of speech changed her view on life; hence the reason why she went back to college – she felt like she could stand a chance competing with males for grades and eventually a job. Christine is advantaged by living in the modern age, a time of near-equality – but also quite unlucky in the way that she is insecure and emotionally unstable; this is due to the new pressures the media puts on women, telling them how they should look, plus the pressures the women put on themselves. 20 to 35 of young women have symptoms of bulimia and, in the US alone; over 7 million women are clinically depressed. In each decade as time went on the women’s right to choose and have a say especially in the public sphere increased as the women’s movement took hold and abortion was one of the burning issues. In the fifties abortion was illegal, in the seventies it was legal but socially frowned upon but by the nineties abortion was becoming more acceptable. This resulted in each woman who had an abortion having different experiences due to the society’s own laws and social awareness and beliefs.

There is one common bond that links all the female characters in Vera Drake and If These Walls Could Talk together; they are all very similar in the way that they cherish their family ties. Vera Drake and Barbara Barrows are both mothers and love their family very much; running their household in a cheerful, efficient manner. This is what has been reinforced through their own families and the society they live in that women should be happiest in the home and not want for anymore. Even Claire Donnelly has a strong family tie – she is very close to the family of her deceased husband, having Thanksgiving dinner over their house and meeting with her mother-in-law quite regularly. Christine also has a family tie, even though she is far from home, off at college; in one scene we see her talking to her mother on the phone – the way she converses with her, it is obvious that they talk on a daily basis.

The UK and the US are both similar in the way they have responded to women’s movements – both countries gave women the right to vote around the same time; the UK did it in 1918 and the US in 1919. Also, both countries instated equal pay acts only seven years apart from each other – 1963 in the US and 1970 in the UK.

In conclusion; I think there are numerous similarities between the characters in Vera Drake and If These Walls Could Talk; and, honestly, I think Barbara was the luckiest of them all. She had new found equality, plus; the media’s influence on body image wasn’t as strong – the 70s seem to a lot like today, but an uncorrupted version.