Monumental and somewhat controversial facts and realizations that have been proposed over the years have included the blatant oppression of women as whole. Such an oppression has caused a tone of resentfulness and a distinct class system where the women constantly are placed below men. The oppression of women was a focused writing topic from the 19th and 20th centuries especially. These authors were most often times women, specifically Kate Chopin whom was a feminist writer in the 1890’s. In particular, Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour” was written as a women empowerment piece yet this theme was masked throughout the story in many ways. Chopin played into the fact that women were viewed as weak in the 1890’s and how they were treated as second class citizens by many men. Therefore, by looking at the history of women, the occupations of the Mrs. Mallard and her reaction about her husband’s departure we can see that women have been oppressed in many different ways, which most people don’t see. This is important because women have come a long way to be empowered in society and this was unattainable and frankly frowned upon only a few centuries ago. 

Kate Chopin expresses her angst with men through Mrs. Mallard and her feelings throughout this short story. Mrs. Mallard has the opposite and quite surprising feelings about her husband’s death. She seems to be elated that he has died, when in this situation most people would be distraught and meant to be grieving their lost one. This twisted story and its surprise ending, which all is said to take place in just one hour creates confusion for many when Mrs. Mallard is the person who actually dies because she finds out her husband is alive. Mrs. Mallard is said to have died because of a “broken heart”, this really means that she was elated that her husband had died. This is when Kate Chopin puts a spin on the story and the reader must dig deeper and realize that Mrs. Mallard is a representation of all of the oppressed women in America and how they have little rights and much dependency on their husbands whom they are forced to love or to pretend to love most times. 

In the short story, The Story of an Hour it is clear that women are second class citizens and somewhat scared or intimidated by the men that they are closets with. Women’s suffrage and fight for their rights in general did not begin until the 19th century, which was merely lists of goals and tactics for what women wanted and how they wanted to be treated in society (“The Women’s Right Movement”). This means that women were not actually given many rights until the early 20th century. Seneca Falls occurred on July 19-20, 1848 and it was a time where women came together to speak on behalf of their inequalities and all of the lower class experiences they have (“The Women’s Right Movement”).  This convention was held in order to give women like Mrs. Mallard a voice in a time when men were running the world without women. Men were the providers, women were the caregivers and the home makers, these two classes of life separately existed and did not interact often. Men were superior to women for decades, women were viewed as weak, sometimes compared to delicate flowers, always described using terms such as weak, or feeble. The divide between women and men over the years has caused much tension and up rise of distaste. 

Since the beginning of time women have been reluctant and have tried to fight back as much as they could. Kate Chopin was an iconic woman of her time in terms of the written protest. One famous quote that Kate Chopin wrote has much interpretation and important significance in history. Such quote is as follows: "Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer; than to remain a dupe to illusions all one's Life (“The Role of the Wife”)." These words represent how women didn’t have a choice in their own lives and how it is possibly more important to be alive and fight for their rights rather than be dead. This creates a tone for how women were treated in history and their difficulties in everyday life. Motherhood and home makers were their know attributes to society. “Motherhood was viewed in advice literature, particularly by the 1890s, as one of the most important contributions women could make to her family and to the nation (“The Role of the Wife”). Being a mother was the most important role in a woman’s life she was defined by the way her children were and who they were. A woman’s home was a representation of who they were and how they were able to live and the amount of money that their husbands made. The WIC Main Page verifies the above statements by stating that: “Throughout most of history women generally have had fewer legal rights and career opportunities than men. Wifehood and motherhood were regarded as women's most significant professions.” Women were lower class citizens for many years and therefore held in a lower regard. 

The gender inequalities were originally derived from religious ideologies and classical thought, science and medicine also played a role in the view of men and women (“Gender in Proceedings”). Women were often times viewed as a hysterical. This hysteria scared most men and those men who were doctors in the late 19th century began to reach conclusions about women by viewing their emotions instead of examining them physically. This created an even larger divide between women and men because now men thought that they knew more about women then they knew about themselves. This divide created even more of an up rise when it came to women authors who wanted to give their perspective and input about the matter in general. 

Some men did help to speak out, although most remained silent, there were still some men that spoke for the women. As was stated in Michael O’Malley’s “Women and Equality” website article: “On the other hand, other men and women began arguing that men and women were basically equal—that women had the same mental abilities as men, the same talents, and the same mental and physical toughness and capacity for logic and rational thought.” Such men aided women by allowing them to take parts in their businesses and daily duties. This took place in the 1850’s and in the year 1854 there was a “Women’s Right Petition to New York State Legislature” (Women in Equality). In this petition women were recognized to have rights and that they are human beings as well whom coexist in the world with men and children (Women in Equality). Yet this petition did not give women full rights they still had specific roles which were:

duties and rights as daughters, sisters, wives, and mothers, are not bounded within the circle of home; that in view of the sacredness of their relations, they are not free to desert their fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons amidst scenes of business, politics, and pleasure, and to leave them alone in their struggles and temptations, but that as members of the human family, for the sake of human advancement, women are bound as widely as possible to give to men the influence of their aid and presence; and finally, that universal experience attests that those nations and societies are most orderly, high-toned, and rich in varied prosperity, where women most freely intermingle with men in all spheres of active life (Women in Equality). 

These duties only allowed women little freedom when it came to their everyday lives. They were not able to have normal lives. They were made to be the home makers and to solely hold such a job title until they fought harder for their rights later on in the 19th century. 

The only way to be able to veer from the class system in the late 19th century was to dress outside of such gender role, commonly known as “cross dressing”, women and men would cross dress for masquerade balls in the late 19th century (Gender in the Proceedings). Later on in the century after the petition that was released in 1854, women fought for their suffrage.  “From 1866, the suffrage movement campaigned to get women the vote, which had been given to property-owning men by the 1832 Reform Act, and was extended to working-class men in 1867 and 1884” (Gender in the Proceedings). This suffrage movement was not passed until the early 20th century. Therefore, women were becoming more and more frustrated, and more women’s groups and movements were beginning to spark up in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. 

Kate Chopin paralleled all of these petitions by using her written word and opinions through short stories by pulling together the ideas of many women and using such ideas to make a women be victimized in her stories. This is seen, especially, in “The Story of an Hour” authored by Chopin. There is a hidden message throughout this story and the story itself leaves people in awe and question of what the story really means. Mrs. Mallard had the opposite reaction of what most women were to have at this time when she found out that her husband had passed. Kate Chopin herself said that "Whatever have been the cares of the day, greet your husband with a smile when he returns. Make your personal appearance just as beautiful as possible. Let him enter rooms so attractive and sunny that all the recollections of his home, when away from the same, shall attract him back (“The Role of a Wife”)." This statement represents that women were to be the worshippers of their husbands at this time in the 1860’s they were to put on a show and be happy even if they had a hard day themselves when their husbands came home they had to act differently so that their husbands weren’t upset and had a nice home to come back to. Women were expected to be the loving and giving mothers, they were to maintain this lady-like role throughout their days and they were not allowed to veer from such tasks without being scolded like a child. Women’s roles in life was to reproduce and be a good mother and an even better wife for her husband who provided her with such a lifestyle. This is what mainly caused massive amounts of up rise and upset for women they no longer wanted to be molded into a life and a person that they weren’t but were forced to become. 

Later on in history, in the 1920’s specifically women were finally granted the right to vote, or given suffrage which allowed them to become members of society and the general public while also giving them each their own voice in government and creating an even vaster democracy in the United States. Women fought at Seneca Falls and also continued to petition and created their own groups in order to raise awareness of the unfairness they were experiencing when it came to being equals in society. Women were treated differently and most times more cruelly when it came to acts such as crime, the courtroom in general and the home of course (Gender in the Proceedings). This fight lasted years for women and they eventually were able to be somewhat equal to men. They were no longer treated like animals or children of society in the mid 20th century. Instead they were and now treated as equals. Women hold high powered jobs in society and no longer are specifically named the home makers of the country, they now have more worth and experience in different fields of life rather than the field of life that focused only on raising children and being a wife.  

Women do not have a strong hold or role in society they are often compared or categorized with animals or children. 

Throughout the years’ women have fought to be able to live and coexist with others in the country and around the world. The American women fought for their rights and have inspired women all over the world to fight back and try to gain more rights in society. Kate Chopin helps to show how the oppression of women affected them each separately and how fighting back against the government and people helped them to be their own people. 
