A Comparative Essay between Stephen Leacock’s “The Woman Question” and Jessie Sime’s “Munitions!” Esther Oziel College

In “The Woman Question,” Stephen Leacock uses empty stereotypes that he cannot support with evidence to argue why women are unable to progress in society. He does not have any evidence because women have never been given the opportunity to prove or disprove these assumptions. Instead, he uses fear and humour to undermine the fight for women’s rights and the importance of suffrage. In “Munitions!,” author Jessie Sime rejects these stereotypes by demonstrating that when given the opportunity, women debunk these stereotypes entirely. Sime creates strong female characters and makes the argument that it is not the physical factory that represents liberation but rather the right to choose, in order to dismantle Leacock’s reasoning. Comparing these two works reveals that progress for women in society does not come from what women can and cannot do, but rather what they are given the opportunity to do.

Leacock uses a female caricature to perpetuate the stereotype of strong women as angry, irrational, annoying, unrelenting, and fearsome. He ridicules this caricature and her opinions, calling her “the Awful Woman” characterized by “screaming” and “howling” about Women’s Rights with “a hatchet in her hand, breaking glass” (Leacock 512)....