ENGL 200 D: Reading Literature: Literature in the Marketplace

For my paper I’m planning to investigate whether men or women are produce more value through their labors.  I’ll be working with three works, The Thresher’s Labour and The Woman’s Labour as well as Meritocracy since the first two give arguments for men’s and women’s value respectively, as well as why the other gender is worth less than commonly believed. The arguments in Meritocracy provide some standard of comparison since many of the arguments for the superiority and inferiority of the upper and lower classes closely mirror the arguments for the values of men and women.

Men were seen as more valuable than women in that day and age simply because they would work more physically demanding jobs which in turn had higher monetary rewards, and provided food and shelter for his family.  In many cultures, especially western and mid eastern, men were also seen as favored by God, divinely placed in a position of leadership over their family, mirroring the divine authority given to kings.

Women were conversely seen as inferior since even though they were expected to keep house, bear and raise children, as well as work the less physically demanding jobs.  While their work was less obviously profitable, their labors as housekeeper were important in that they allowed the men in their household some time to rest from the field.

Both men and women had their individual essential roles in society, and while one could potentially function without the other, their complementary roles helped enhance the other’s effectiveness through dividing up the labor.