The society in which we live is always changing. Nothing confirms this point more than the changed circumstances under which Rich and Tierney wrote their essays. Rich delivers her commencement address to a women’s college in 1979 while Tierney wrote his essay in 2006.
To begin with, in Adrienne Rich’s essay, which was a commencement address as already noted above, it is clear that women are being exploited by men. The exploitation is in the form of doing work and not being paid or being underpaid, being censored, and devalued. She says that this has been happening for a long time in the history of mankind (Rich, p. 39).
Apart from the above, Rich goes ahead to talk about the tendency of society to describe feminists as hard people who lack neutrality. She counters this by saying that culture is never neutral and that women are not supposed to be moved by this description. Rich also talks about what women need if they are to play a major role in the liberation of the woman. She calls it the outsider’s eye and says that it is important to get this perspective and try not to lose it as it will be a guiding force in fighting for the rights of women.
Another aspect that Rich raises is the significance of studying history. The history she is specifically talking about is the one that touches on what women are going through both in the United States and around the world. She also says that history should enable the women to know where they have come from, how they have reached where they are, and the history of the much politicized female body. She also tells them to learn about the creative genius of women of the past, their skills and crafts, the techniques of women in other times and cultures, and how they have been mistreated (Rich, p. 41).
Concerning their graduation and the prospects of joining law school as well as medical school, Rich points out the weakness in the joy of achieving this as it appears as a token. She however points out the fact that the members of the graduating class who will have the opportunity of joining these professions can make good use of their skills by fighting for the rights of women in legal issues as well as access to healthcare. Rich also makes it clear that it is not only women who are exploited or mistreated (Rich, p. 44). The other groups she identifies include children and people of color. These groups too can be assisted by the women who become lawyers and doctors according to Rich.
Still on history, Rich emphasizes that these young women who are graduating must understand the great women who risked all to give a voice to the rest. The examples she gives are Anne Hutchinson, Fannie Lou Hamer, Abby Kelly, Ida Wells-Barnett, Mary Wollstonecraft, Lillian Smith, and Susan B. Anthony. She goes ahead to say that to accept tokenism is to sink deeper than a man given that men are loyal to their kind and therefore a woman who accepts tokenism will have betrayed her sisters. She cautions women against imitating male loyalties and instead tells them to bond for the release of what she calls unexplored resources in each other (Rich, p. 43).
Tierney’s essay on the other hand presents a case where college achievement is on the side of women; with three women graduating for every two men. He wonders what man the third woman will marry. As he proceeds with the essay, he points out that the figures are likely to go up; with more women graduating from college and earning more money. He gives the ratio of 60 to 40 with 60 going covering women (Tierney, p. 1). He says that with this scenario, the women will be coming home with fatter paychecks compared to their male counterparts; a situation that runs to the counter to the traditional one whereby the bigger paycheck was always with the man who took the role of the breadwinner for the family.
Tierney introduces the topic of marriage whereby he says that men are nowadays more open to dating and marrying women who earn more than they do (Tierney, p. 1). He also says that he has never heard men talking ill of other men who earn less than their wives. But this is not the case with women since they talk ill of the husbands of their friends if these husbands earn less than their wives.
Another point that Tierney makes is that women are not ready to marry men whose earning power is less than their own. They are determined to look up as opposed to men who are willing to marry women who earn more than they do. These women with high earning power also look for men with equally high earning power and Tierney gives the example of Elisabeth in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice shunning the cleric and going for the more privileged Mr. Darcy (Tierney, p. 2). The last point Tierney makes is that college-level women and high school-level men are going to have difficulty finding partners if the gender gap exists even before college continues.
In conclusion, the two essays are addressing the relationship between men and women in society. Rich focuses on what women need to do to empower themselves while Tierney presents a case where women are already ahead of men in educational achievement.
Works Cited
- Rich, Adrienne. “What does a woman need to know?” Ms Magazine. 1979. Print.
- Tierney, John. “Male Pride and Female Prejudice”. New York Times. 2006.