Women have been an inspiration for many writers for centuries. They have been celebrated as symbols of beauty, affection and strength, and we usually connect them with motherhood and raising children. The works about women very often reveal not only lives of women, but they also describe the times and problems they had to face, and they provide a very clear picture about the whole society of the times when these works were created. Contrasting the modern day women to the women in Voltaire’s period we can look into the past and the present and see how women’s roles have changed. After centuries of conforming to female stereotypes created by men, women are slowly taking control of their own image making. Image of being equal to the men and being able to face the reality of life on their own, without men’s support.In the past the traditional concepts of what it means to be a woman were taught in the early stages of development. Parents encourage outdated roles in the way little girls are dressed, the toys they play with, and the books that are read to them. As pointed out in “X: A Fabulous Child’s Story” by Lois Gould, girls were treated a distinct way. In the late 1800s, women did not play an important role in society at all. Their job was mainly to cook, clean, sew, take care of the children, and keep the house in order. They were treated as a material possession rather than a human being that could think and act for themselves and looked upon as a decorative member of the household. Women were treated just as sex objects , alive just to satisfy a mans needs and desires. They were robbed of their true identity. The male always dominated over the women and it was not viewed as “unfair.” The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries on the part of men toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.” (Declaration of Sentiments) It...
