No One Likes to Be Alone: The Lonely, Independent Women of Alice Munro Hermione Daguin College

Along with stone tools, the Paleolithic Era brought on the division of labor according to gender. This division eventually created the inequality between men and women, which caused the endless battles women had to fight to regain their birth rights. Scant progress had been made before the mid to late 1800s; gradually, women earned their legal rights to work and be their own individual. The negative attitude towards women working outside of home had pivoted by the 1950s. However, many women were compelled to sacrifice a family life to maintain the independence their jobs provided them. The women in Alice Munro’s “Carried Away” and “The Albanian Virgin” attempt to hide their loneliness by promoting their independence through their jobs, sexual adventures, and alienation from society.

In The Ideal Woman, Jennifer Holt illustrated the stereotypical role of the socially acceptable woman during the 1950s and 1960s and its actual effect on women. During World War II, there were high demands for women in the workforce which gave rise to Rosie the Riveter and feminist movements. Nonetheless, after the war, employers and society pushed to retake the image of the domestic women. Having gained a taste of life outside of home, women...