Women Empowerment in Lysistrata and The Yellow Wallpaper

Women empowerment brings together women from all areas of life together to realize their self-worth and the potential they have in light of a male dominated country/world. The importance of women empowerment is that women grow to have self-worth, confidence and the freedom of choosing their life/profession the way, they feel is right for them. Women empowerment is bringing out the confidence in a woman and striving towards recognizing that women are equally intelligent, talented, independent and using their voice to stand up for domestic violence.

The women in Lysistrata and The Yellow Wallpaper, share the burden of just being taken as a joke, but they do not allow that burden to weigh them down as they fight for their voices to be heard or rebel against their husbands.

Women in Lysistrata

In Lysistrata and The Yellow Wallpaper, women are not given enough respect, nor cared about their feelings and the men do not take them seriously. These women do not have any control over their lives, because their husband is in charge of their life.

The women in Lysistrata, are only in charge of the household and taking care of children, so they could not hold any other responsibility besides being a housewife. Women are talked to in a lowly matter: “Your Honor, there’s no use talking to them. Words mean nothing whatever to wild animals like these” (pg. 224) The respect or acknowledgment has ever been given to women, so the men disrespect and compare them to wild animals.

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Men in Lysistrata do not care about what a woman has to say or do because it is not the women’s business to be involved with the Peloponnesian War. A woman has no status, but to follow in her husbands’ commands; just like the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper.

Narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper

In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator lives a life controlled by her husband, John. He tells her what to do, makes all the decisions for her, and prescribes her medication because he is her physician and if “one’s husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression – slight hysterical tendency – what is one to do?” (pg. 388). With John having full control over her life, she cannot do much but to believe and obey. The narrator is suffering from post-partum depression, but feels misunderstood: “John does not understand how much I really suffer” (pg.389) Is John not a physician though? Why doesn’t he believe his wife and her post-partum depression? While the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper is struggling to understand her husband’s reasonings, the women Lysistrata are fighting their way through, so their voices can be heard and gain respect from the men.

Fighting for Their Rights

Lysistrata, the women stand up for themselves and go on a no-sex strike, so they can fight for their rights and prove to the men what their existence means. They do not allow the men to control them, but to take control of their own lives: “And so we women decided to rescue Greece” (pg. 226). Their voices are hard to be found at first, because the men ignore them and give them no acknowledgement, but they do not give up though. They continue to push for their rights as a woman and to feel empowered within their communities. Once their strike is understood by the men: “… The women have shown they’ll have nothing to do with us until we get a treaty” (pg.234). Finally, the women’s no-sex strike has worked and there will be peace to end the Peloponnesian War. While the women in Lysistrata have fought for their rights and learned to empower other women, the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper does something a little different though; going against her husband’s wishes.

In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator’s dairy becomes a symbol of her rebellion against John’s commands. Writing has been an escape for her: “Personally, I believe that congenital work, with excitement and change, would do me good” (pg. 388). She wants to write and believes it will help her mental/emotional condition. But she is forbidden to write or express herself because her husband believes it exhausts her and “there is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours… a false and foolish fancy… trust me as a physician when I tell you so” (pg.394). John wants to have that control over their life and will continue to do as he, please. So, the narrator can’t escape from her husband, she’s imprisoned to him. Her dairy is her way of fighting for herself and empowering herself to become a woman who will not be controlled by her husband. Both of these women in Lysistrata and The Yellow Wallpaper have their own ways of fighting for women empowerment and do it differently but in an effective way.

The importance of women empowerment is to educate women and empower them, so they’ll be able to become a person of themselves. Women should learn how to stand in a battle and fight in a battle of life for themselves without being dependent on anyone. Let their burdens and struggles become a lesson in life, so they can continue to make their own decisions in life. To let their voices shine and be free who they want to be.