Women's role has changed

I went to my aunt’s house in the beach for summer. I was alone with her, so I felt very bored and while I was arguing with me how could be in summer like that when suddenly a big box full of books fell down on me from a shelf. At the beginning it was quite unpleasant; I fell down too, but when I saw some scattered books, one caught my attention, it was if I would find a beautiful treasure, it had this typical antique smell of things that were used for several times and had been forgotten by time.

My aunt –the owner of the box of old books- said to me: “Read it! It’s a wonderful novel set in the 20th century; you will be surprised”, then I said to her: “Thanks! I love novels, more if it’s a Chilean author”. So, I took with me and soon I was very eager to begin for reading it.

As my aunt said, I had an unexpected impression, because I felt a great connection for the book; the life of my ascendant has many similarities with it, I could know and how they lived, but when I got deep into the book, my own life in certain way, took a character inside of the book: she was Clara Del Valle.

While I read and read more, I got some new ideas how my family lived, but more about women of my family, because of Clara, with who I felt an attraction, besides that she represents some aspects of the woman in these days, especially to my grandmother . So, when I read a new page of the book, I could learn even more of my family, also about me.

Clara Del Valle lived in a century where women occupied another role in the world; a patriarchal structure, she had to be in house, raising children, preparing all the meals, were the basis of their family role, as the women of my family in that time had to do. And while I was growing up, several times I saw my grandmother doing the housework, preparing biscuits and cakes, and I could want to be like her.

Despite of that, there were some differences between them. While Clara lived in the city, my grandmother lived in the countryside; therefore Clara had more contact with other people than just with the family as my grandmother had, and also could know some things before than a countryside girl. On the other hand, Clara belonged from an upper social class -so she had much more facilities and royalties- , and my grandmother from an intermediate social class; the family lived in a tranquility and traditional way of life, where the things were no so expensive, no so cheaper.

But if you see, these women had a lot of in common; they were living in a closed world of men, in certain way all the differences or similarities can change how they had to keep their fears and dreams, and by time -though slowly- they have opened many doors for themselves and moreover for us.

All of this stuff made me think about how much has changed the women’s role through the time in many aspects; they have to go out and work for getting better incomes for their family as a result of the world’s development. Moreover, family structure have passed from patriarchal structure into a dual structure, and finally children stay most of the time lonely. This reminds me all the women’s efforts done by themselves and all the advances achieved.

Firstly, women have had to go out and work for getting better incomes for their family, because of the world’s development and also for the economic situation during the last century. Besides women had to fight –no literally- against the men, trying to have a place in the business world, although even nowadays women receive much less money than men. But how we never give up, we go for working against the difficulties, such as the machismo, where men think that women can’t do things “of men”, how to drive a truck –in fact anything that has wheels-, to manage a business or simply to study at the university (in older times, I hope…).

Secondly, family structure have suffered a big change, from being a patriarchal structure evolving into a dual structure, where the woman and the man share the same tasks related to the family: housework, bills, etc. Some men refuse to accept it, but others –with an open mind- assume the change and they see it as a positive point of view and help us to develop our interests, jobs or even take a broom and sweep the floor. There aren´t any older families with a patriarchal structure, anymore they are part of the past, because I can see in my own family, my parents share bills, housework and in my case raising and enjoy grandsons.

Finally, as a terrible consequence, children pass most of the time alone. Women have to decide between going to work or not, but almost always there is no option; they have to. However, children try to figure out for themselves, and seems like in the majority of the cases lots of them are more independent. This is something very important nowadays, but this had transformed into an individual way of life, where the television and computer are their best friends. They have to learn many things alone, and they eat alone, they are living like an adult.

In conclusion, women have changed in many aspects, for good or bad. It has been a long and hard road to get space in this patriarchal structure. Lots of them have suffered much more than others; they have built the road for us, making a little easier our job in this world. Tomorrow I will be an English teacher, and I’m going to develop me in all the aspects, as much as I can, for opening more doors for other women’s future.


By: Rebeca Morales Vargas.