In today's world, the controversy surrounding major social issues such as sexism and gender roles is quite a big deal. Although it is sad to see that these are still problems in society today, the fight against them is growing in support every single day. In historical times, patriarchal values were overpowering, and fighting against them was a nearly impossible task that no one dared to undertake. In the prose poem Girl, author Jamaica Kincaid effectively utilizes the historical concepts of women's expectations, power struggles, and sexual roles in order to convey the misery that so many women faced in the 20th Century. 

The prominence of women's expectations throughout Girl is something that simply cannot be ignored. Throughout the 19th and early 20th Centuries, women had "expectations" of what they were supposed to do. Throughout almost the entire story, her mother teaches the girl simply how to fulfill these expectations. For example, in the beginning of the story, the mother teaches the daughter how to wash "white clothes on Monday" and "color clothes on Tuesday", highlighting only the beginning of a long list of standards that she must hold herself to (Kincaid 126). The unfair nature of the 19th and early 20th century is that "boys always get first place and are seen as breadwinners while girls stay home and cook", meaning that men are exempt from all these exceptions simply because they hold a job (O'Connor and Drury 107). Later on in the story, the reader sees a rather harsh example of how expectations can negatively affect a female in the early 20th Century. While teaching her daughter various "womanly" duties, the mother tells the daughter "walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming" (Carolina Reader 126). This holds a deep underlying message that if women do not try or fail to meet their expectations, then they are considered sluts. A final interesting observation of women's expectations within Girl can be found on the very same page. After calling her daughter a slut, the mother continues to tell the daughter not to "speak to wharf-rat boys". The idea that the daughter will somehow be corrupted if she approaches one of these boys, although preposterous, it acts as negative reinforcement to make sure the she stays away from them, thereby meeting expectations. Thankfully, today, such a way of thinking would be considered selfish and immoral rather than proper and standard. 

Also prominent in Girl is the minimal level of control that women hold. The power struggle that women faced has been well documented throughout history. In Girl  one example of this power struggle is how most of the tasks the mother lists are done for the man in the house. The patriarchal values instilled in this text offer real insight into how women were often much lower than men on the totem pole during this time period. Similarly, in The Female Face in Patriarchy, authors Frances O'Connor and Becky Drury note that women were taught that being good means "'accepting the dominant male view of how women ought to act'" (Drury and O'Connor 7).  Also indicative of women's power struggle are some specific instances of diction within the short story. An example is when the mother tells the daughter how to iron her father's clothes "so that they don't have...crease[s]", connoting a possible fear of the consequences (Carolina Reader 197). Even into the early 20th century, husbands were still sometimes cruel to their wives, so having such a fear would be legitimate. In other cases, as author Gerda Lerner discusses in The Creation of Patriarchy, women who married men of power were "given considerate power and privileges," but the threat of being replaced and losing this power was often enough to instill worry and fear into them (Lerner 214). Syntax also plays quite a big role in magnifying the underlying theme of the power struggle. In Girl, every sentence, with the exception of the daughter's responses, begin with "This is how to..." (Carolina Reader 196-197). This detail is critically important because it illustrates how women did everything imaginable around the house, and exercised little freedom. This struggle for power and freedom was a defining characteristic of American society in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. One of the causational factors behind this, as pointed out in The Female Face in Patriarchy, is that women over the years got used to "accepting a subordinate role in decision making", a problem that many people can still identify in society today (O'Connor and Drury 16). Today, feministic groups, as well as equality groups, are working hard to make sure these social problems are replaced with respect and equality, paving the way for a better future. 

The historical context of women's sexual roles is a rather interesting feature of Girl. One of the most notable features of the 19th and early 20th centuries was that the man would work, while the woman would take care of the house, as well as the husband when he returned home. When the mother tells the daughter how to make "a good medicine to throw away a child before it is even born", Kinkaid is suggesting that accidental pregnancy was such an issue that women needed to know how to abort (Carolina Reader 197). During the time period, it was expected that a woman care for her husband, and of course, this often meant sexually, as well as physically and emotionally. Similarly, in The Creation of Patriarchy, Lerner discusses how during times of slavery, "sexual services were a part of [the] labor", meaning that a woman's sexual duties during the late 19th century could be interpreted as part of her labor, rather than an important part of a marriage. The concept of the 19th century "slut" is also an important part of the female sexual role at the time. When the mother tells the daughter "behave in the presence of men...[so] they won't recognize... the slut I warned you against becoming", Kinkaid is indicating how sluts were characterized by an unattractive amount of sexual activity and promiscuity, and thus could not be happy in life (Carolina Reader 197). This is very interesting, as it attempts to draw a line between sexual activity and attractiveness, when women, contradictorily, are expected to satisfy their husbands sexually often. The final example of how female sexuality is instilled into Girl can be found near the end of the story. While on the subject of relationships, the mother very blatantly says "this is how to love a man", pointing out the obvious necessity of sexual knowledge in order to better please the husband (Carolina Reader 197). Women having to please men was no surprise during this time period, as the mother's unchanging tone would suggest, but rather an unchangeable fate. Overall, women's sexual roles in the late 19th and early 20th century are very accurately depicted in Girl.

Jamaica Kinkaid effectively uses the historical themes of women's expectations, power struggles, and sexuality in her short story Girl, in order to convey a serious need for change. Her extreme, yet simple style of writing in this piece is extremely critical to conveying the rash reality that surrounded people as they grew up in the early 1900s. Although this was written to emphasize the problems with society in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the sad reality is that many of these problems still exist in our world today. Sexism, for example, is alive and well, and the proof lies in the fact that men are, on average, paid more than women to perform the same job with the same amount of experience and knowledge. The word "slut" still has an extremely negative connotation, means the same thing, and has the same terrible effect when it is applied to a person or group of people. Nonetheless, people all across the country and all across the world are persistent for change in these things, looking forward to a better, more equal society. Whether change will come or not, however, is something only time will tell.
