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Herland is a novel believed to have been written by Charlotte Perkins in 1915. It is, essentially, a story about a village where only the female sex existed. Consequently, the women produced asexually. Asexual production is a form of production where the genetic material resulting in offspring production comes only from one parent egg.
Meiosis and fertilization, which involves merging of the male sperm and the female egg, does not occur in asexual production. Cloning done in this production ensures that there are no sexual and genetic differences between the parent and her child. The women in Herland were able to produce their young ones without the male sex.
This female sex only society resulted in a culture of peace among the inhabitants, the women had a good social order and they followed the laws set to the latter. The women were organized into different units, each with specific tasks. Some were teachers and others were busy in the fields producing food for the community.
They were not involved in any conflicts within themselves and with their neighbors. There wasn’t any domineering gender since they considered themselves equal and away from the bondage of men. The women fought to liberate themselves from the men who had intentions of eliminating older women so they could stay with a number that they could trample on.
Thesis statement
2000 years later, Herland has managed to overcome male dominance by organizing themselves into a sisterly union where work is communally shared and everyone is an equal among others.
Plot
The story starts with a group of sociology students Van, Terry and Jeff. Van narrates his ordeal as he set out with his close friends to visit a land with strange inhabitants. These students have a huge interest in science and expedition. They set on an exploration to investigate a land that is rumored to have only the female sex. They guess on how a society could exist without the male sex.
The difference in male perception of women reveals in the way the friends interpret the role of men in a social setting. Jeff was going with an approach of finding out how the women manages to protect themselves from external aggression since he considered men as being the family protector. Terry was a man with a huge ego who believed the women were under man’s authority.
When the boys arrived in Herland, they decided to keep away from the land and watch what’s going their activities and interactions from a far. They were not aware there were women on surveillance in the forest watching them from the tree tops. The women were well positioned in the canopies to detect an intruder. They easily lead the explorers into a trap by leading them on a run to their village.
As they make their entry, the explorers notice the strength that the women posses as they are not afraid of their intrusion. They have male physiques and involved in a number of development activities to improve their land and livelihoods. They sedate after the explorers after they’re led to a house which was positioned in the middle of the village. The tenderness of women shows in the manner in which they handle the explorers despite not being conversant with the nature of their visit.
The explorers gained consciousness a while later, they woke up to find that they were fed, clothed and laid well on clean surroundings. The women went ahead to delegate language teaching duties to three of their own assigned to the explorers to teach them their language so they could understand their case.
The women are comfortable with the men being around since they also want to explore the kind of life the explorers lead in their land. They take their time with the explorers not to scare them into running away before they are not done with their investigations.
Van notes the specifics about the native’s livelihoods in terms of their style and ways of socializing. He detects the balance between functionality and aesthetic quality of the furniture the women use. The seats were made of hard wood to last for long, decorative ornaments were also embedded to give them a beautiful look.
He also defends the practices in his own society that the women considered as unacceptable in their land. One case was abortion which he found it a hard task to defend since it was against the women’s values. Van, Jeff and Terry are fascinated at the perfect condition the women were living in.
After some months, the explorers managed to escape from their captivity. They took advantage of the women’s trust and escaped at night. The women set them free and did not suspect that the men had ill intentions against them. In this their first attempt, they found their hidden plane wrapped in a large cloth covering. The women had premeditated their escape and went ahead to seal their escape route. They were found at the scene pondering on their next move.
They then realize that they need be friendly to them to guarantee their eventual release. Van and Jeff seem happy with the reception and the kindness that the women have bestowed upon them though Terry is finding it hard agreeing with their customs. Van confronts him about this though he is not willing to give up his viewpoints.
The origin of the women is understood as Van finds out that most of the men died in a past volcanic eruption, the rest of the men tried to kill the young men and old women so they could keep the young women and domineer over them. The women confronted the men in a battle eventually killing all of them.
As they were coming to terms with their new social order, a woman gave birth to a baby daughter, she bore three other daughters. Her daughters also produced only female children and this marked the beginning of an all women society. The women got used to this condition and strengthened to continue their work without men. They acted as mentors to their daughters teaching them on good morals.
Each of the men eventually developed relationships with three of the women. Van tries to woo Ellador, the first lady he saw when he arrived in the village. Jeff proposes to Celis, though Terry finds the going tough with Alima. They had problems since the women grew up not experiencing any romantic relationships.
Moreover, the women had no religious affiliation and did not see the sense in exchanging vows during their marriage ceremonies. After the marriages, the unions face hurdles as the women do not understand their roles in the family (Gilman. 68).
Even more importantly, from the story, Van struggles with his marriage emerging victorious in the end after continuously training the wife, he is driven by love he had for Ellador. Terry gets frustrated in his marriage because they could not understand each other; he eventually tries to rape his wife. This leads to his disbandment from the society and they order him back to his society. Van has to go with his friend Terry on the plane back home and Ellador accompanies him without the knowledge of her people.
Feminist theories
Feminism is the actions and movements promoting equal political, social and economic representation of women with that of men. It seeks equality with the male gender since historically, women were sidelined in representation and their duties restricted to the kitchen. The feminist theories identified are:
Social feminism is a theory rooted on the understanding that gender inequality and women misrepresentation is as a result of women alienation economically and culturally. In many countries especially young democracies, the women have their own culturally defined roles which hinder their improvements. In Africa, women are traditionally known to belong in the kitchen, doing all the domestic work and they have little say on family matters. The men are the head of the house, making family decisions independent of the wives’ views.
Social feminism looks at the causes of gender divide since cultural and economic disparities have been against women. Women in some African countries have no inheritance rights. This means that properties cannot be passed from the father to the daughters if the sons are still alive.
This limits their property ownership rights. This makes them continue in the cycle of poverty and thereby increasing their dependence on the male counterparts. Some Arab countries do not authorize women to vote in electoral contests thereby hindering their representation (Frye 25-35).
In Herland, the women who rebelled against their men and overcome them were against oppression directed towards them. They had already gone through slavery and tired of being under a male figure who would still domineer over them. This agrees with the thesis statement because Herland gave the women the peace they so desired, they were free from war and territorial conflicts, their social structure were reconstructed and they were fully enjoying their hard work by getting bumper harvests.
To explicate this, the narrator says:
As I learned more and more to appreciate what these women had accomplished, the less proud I was of what we, with all our manhood, had done. You see, they had had no wars. They had had no kings, and no priests, and no aristocracies. They were sisters, and as they grew, they grew together — not by competition, but by united action. (Gilman 79)
Liberal feminism believes that political and legal reviews are the drivers to gender equality. This theory states that the interactions of men and women in political and legal circles should lead to appreciation of the role the women can play in governance. There have been proponents for affirmative action which calls for a substantial increase in women representation through legally binding decrees to increase the number of women leaders.
According to Tong, issues of concern to liberal feminists are equal educational opportunities to both the genders, reproductive and abortion rights, domestic violence, provision of healthcare especially maternal health for women, and domestic violence (30-45).
All these issues require commitments from both genders to put all these issues in form of legislation so that they are internalized in both the private and public spheres of life. Susan Wendell, a liberal feminist says that liberal feminism is about reorganization of the economy and wealth redistribution. She says that every member of the society deserves equal opportunities to prosper (82-90).
In Herland, after the fall of man, the women got to an agreement that the crops are produced for the benefit of all. This empowered them since they were able to cultivate land and enjoy their produce; past slavery limited them on this since they provided free labor in their master’s farms.
Additionally, they had a strict law on abortion, no one is allowed to abort because theirs was a pure breed and they wanted to increase their population. Domestic violence was unheard of as they lived happily with one another. Herland restored the pride they desired as they lived free from oppression.
Separatist feminism is against the male dominance in the family set up. Their advocacy focuses on women and girls. They tell them that men cannot be trusted to help women overcome their challenges in the society. These feminists encourage the uptake of male dominated jobs and institutions by women to encourage wealth creation across the genders.
Herland had women who were physically able to secure themselves from external attack. They tilled land for farm produce and were intelligent enough to make decisions about their livelihoods without the help of men. The theory of separatist feminism is clearly practiced by the women in Herland by taking this radical approach to highlighting gender equality.
Works Cited
Frye, Marilyn. Some Reflections on Separatism and Power. East Lansing, Mich: Tea Rose Press, 1981. Print.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “Herland.” 1860-1935. Electronic Text Center. Web.
Tong, Rosemarie. Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2009. Print.
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