American Studies ETDs

Publication Date

7-14-1977

Abstract

Redefining Women is a study of the position of women in patriarchal culture: their oppression as women in the traditional women's role in patriarchy, the implications of that oppression, women's realization that they are oppressed, and the process of women rejecting the traditional definition and redefining themselves for themselves. Chapter I is an overview of the oppression of women from the beginning of patriarchy to European culture of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The chapter discusses the secular and spiritual persecution of women under patriarchy, with a focus on women in Western culture. Chapter II is a detailed critique of Sigmund Freud's psychology of women. Over the past century, Freud's theories have reaffirmed the traditional definition of women in a particularly influential way. His theories repeat traditional ideas about women within a new framework. Chapter III discusses two psychoanalysts who broke away from Freud: Alfred Adler, the first man to leave, and Karen Horney, the first woman to leave. Adler's disagreement with Freud did not extend to a redefinition of women. Adler sees women's position as separate but equal to men's. Horney's disagreement with Freud centered on his psychology of women. In her criticism of Freud, in her criticism of patriarchal culture and women's position in it, and in her own theories of women, she was the first person to construct a positive psychology of women. Because Horney's female perspective is evident in her theories, her work is an important step in women redefining themselves. Chapter IV discusses the implications of oppression in the lives of women. By separating what is natural from what is conditional, we can see that women, traditionally defined, are oppressed. And oppression results in the oppressed being losers: seeing themselves as losers, living their lives as losers, and negatively affecting those around them. Women as losers can be exemplified in countless ways, but all of them have to do with a woman either living a traditional role or trying to reject it and failing to find alternatives. Many women have "escaped," only to find an alternative that is no better than what they escaped, but merely different. The alternatives have often been as limited, as unhealthy, and as self-destructive as the traditional role. The only way that a woman has traditionally been able to have the freedom to choose an alternative in which she could find self-fulfillment and happiness was if she had a great deal of money-her own money-or some money and a great deal of talent. Chapter V discusses the process of a woman redefining herself within the context of self-awareness and freedom. Each woman needs the opportunity to establish her own identity, to have room to grow, to have space to be herself and not what she is expected to be. There is no replacing of the traditional definition with any one definition, for there are no two women alike. The appendices consist of four interviews with women in the process of redefining themselves. The women represent both individuals and "everywoman." The lives of the women in the interviews are similar, in varying degrees, to all women's lives in Western culture, since all women in Western culture have been defined by the same traditional definition.

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

American Studies

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

American Studies

First Committee Member (Chair)

Joel M. Jones

Second Committee Member

Patricia Clark Smith

Third Committee Member

Charles DeWayne Biebel

Fourth Committee Member

Natalie Mackler

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