“I Stand Here Ironing” was written in 1961 about the issues women sometimes, face such as poverty and motherhood. Tillie Olsen was known for her political views in the 1930s. She was part of the first generation of feminists. Born in Wahoo, Nebraska, many of Tillie Olsen’s works were a voice of the struggles of women and the working class (“Tillie”). Her first book, published in 1961, was Tell Me a Riddle, which consists of “I Stand Here Ironing”. In the short story, Olsen recounts her difficult time with her daughter and the irritation of motherhood and poverty.
As a young mother in the 1940s, her writing life was put on hold while she raised her four children. This story is based on a true event that happened in her lifetime. Olsen published another book in 1978 entitled Silences. In it, she describes the issues of feminism and social struggle. Olsen examined what she had faced with sexism. In a New York Times Book review, she speaks of writing in the 60’s about silences imposed on women. Olsen advocated for women’s rights, racial and social justice. Olsen worked as a professor at Standford University. She passed away at the age 94 years old (Bosman).
The story begins with a mother ironing. She receives a sudden phone call regarding her daughter Emily. The phone call was from her school teacher who was concerned about Emily. While receiving the news about her daughter, she began to question her mothering skills. The mother doesn’t think she can help Emily. The story shifts from her being on the phone to her reminiscing about when Emily was a baby. As the mother tells the story about her daughter, one realizes she was not motherly to Emily. The mother has five children who were nurtured and taken care of properly, but Emily wasn’t.
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No matter how much Emily cried and the mother’s breasts would ache, she refused to nurse her. Emily’s father left the mother when she was only eight months old due to the lack of finances, he was not able to provide for the both of them. The mother had to seek work while leaving Emily in the care of family members. For a brief time, Emily has trouble with school when she lived with her in-laws. This led to the mother trying to find jobs to take care of the family. The story takes place during the Great Depression, which was difficult for women who did not have husbands because many jobs wouldn’t hire women.
Many women in the world are constantly fighting for their rights. We live in a world where women are not only judged based on skin color but on gender. Olsen worked hard in the 60s to change the way society treated women. For example, in Silences, she described how women have to stay quiet when they are being mistreated or judge wrongfully. “I Stand Here Ironing” brings out many themes in the story, such as feminism.
First, let’s look at what is Feminism. As explained in Feminism Opposing Viewpoints, “Feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes” (Hurley 9). Every woman wants equal opportunity to men. The term “feminism” originated in France by a women’s rights activist in the nineteenth century but did not come common in the United States until the twentieth century (Berkeley 6). By the time Americans became familiar with the word “feminism”, many women’s organizations work at advocating for the rights and protection of women (6).
Around the world, many women are supposed to be submissive, housewives, and just work without giving their opinion. Many women had to give up their dreams because society thinks many women should be nurses, teachers, but not astronauts. It’s still more likely your governors, engineers, and boss are male, but your housekeeper, nurse and secretary are female (Bordo 21). Women are supposed to be like shadows. This is why many women sometimes get ignored by men because some men have certain beliefs on how a woman should be. Women continue the cooking, cleaning, and the household chores (Hurley 19).
In “I Stand Here Ironing”, we can see many times where feminism was present and how the mom was constantly fighting to have her rights. “You think because I am her mother, I have a key, or that in some way you could use me as a key? There is all that life that has happened outside of me, beyond me” (Olsen 292).The mother is speaking with the professor who is judging her mothering skills, who probably thinks because she is the mother, she should automatically know what is wrong with her daughter. Feminism affects not only their children but are persuasive throughout numerous culture (Hurley 19).
In “I Stand Here Ironing it states”, “They persuaded me at the clinic to send her away to a nursing home in the country where ‘she can have the kind of food and care you can’t manage for her, and you’ll be free to concentrate on the new baby.’ The mother was judged harshly on her mothering skills because the people knew without a man she can’t possibly raise a child by herself. In the ‘60s some women were judged harshly when they were single and tried to work. People tried to take their children away from them. A child could have their mom in their life, but that doesn’t automatically mean the mother will fix whatever is wrong with the child.
According to John Stuart Mill, “The only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject is by hearing what can be said about it by persons of every variety of opinion and studying all modes in which it can be looked at by every character of mind.” (Qtd. in Hurley 11). In a Netflix original show entitled Cable Girl, you can still see how feminism still exists. Women were only hired for the telephone lines while the men were bosses or accountants. Lidia, one of the characters on the show, had created the telephone booth, but a man claimed that was his idea. Mill states that to be able to change something, we must listen to both sides and consider everyone’s opinion. In many shows you can still see how feminism’s heart is still beating.
“I Stand Here Ironing” takes place during The Great Depression. “I was nineteen. It was the pre-relief, pre-WPA world of the Depression” (Olsen 293). WPA was a Works Progress Administration that President Roosevelt established. Due to the war, many husbands had passed away. “I had to work her first six years when there was work, or I sent her home and to his relatives. We were poor and could not afford for her the soil of easy growth” (293).
My point is similar to Understanding Poverty, A single mother with two children who works full time would receive an income that was about 40 percent of her earnings, bringing the income of the mother to just about the poverty line (Danziger 5). Many times in the story, the mother could not provide for her daughter, it came to the point where she had to give Emily to her families. “But it came to where I had to bring her to his family and leave her. It took a long time to raise money for her fare back” (Olsen 293). As explained in Feminism: Opposing Viewpoints, in the 1960s, jobs available for women were typically low-paying and involved numerical tasks. Regardless of their education or experiences, women were excluded from higher opportunities in the workforce (Hurley 12).
Women who did not establish careers were often paid less than men, even if they did have a career. Due to society standards, men were supposed to be above women. An estimated 51 cent per dollar for the same work in the 60’s (12). Although some women may face workplace discrimination, if feminists truly want to help women, they should focus their attention on the economic inequalities that make it difficult for poor working class women to support themselves and their families (35).
The mother later realized while reflecting how she was never there for Emily because of her youth. She had put herself and her other children first before Emily. She told the teacher to let Emily make her own mistakes. What type of mother would step back from disciplining their child regardless if the child is a little bit too old to be beaten. At the end of the story she still wanted her teacher to take care of her daughter instead of trying help with Emily. Emotional neglect involves failing to provide emotional support that one should provide, such as the mother lack of emotional support toward Emily (Cohen).
Recent research found that those who were married received and provided less instrumental and emotional support than those who were unmarried. Emily was teased by her peers who’s had moms who didn’t have to work, but her mother was the only working mother. When the teacher had called Emily mother, it’s because she was worried about Emily is performance in school. The mom did not even show any concern about the issue. You could see how the lack of caring reflected back on Emily. As explained in the story, Emily was a gloomy, low-self-esteem, selfless, and became sick for the attention of her mother.
How a mother interacts with her daughter varies from one person disciplines to another. These behaviors affect daughters in specific ways (Streep). “Emily would call for me, and I would rouse from exhaustion to sleepily call back: You’re all right, darling, go to sleep, it’s just a dream, and if she still called, in a sterner voice, now to go sleep, Emily, there’s nothing to hurt you. Now when it is too late (as if she would let me hold and comfort her like I do the others)
I get up and go to her at once at her moan or restless stirring. Me you awake, Emily? Can I get you something? And the answer is always the same: No, I’m all right, go back to sleep, Mother (Olsen 294). With the mom working, providing, and caring for her other children, it was extremely hard to pay attention to only one child. Dismissive behavior can become combative if the mother actively and aggressively turns dismissal into rejection (Streep). In the story, the teacher is begging for the mother’s attention, “I wish you would manage the time to come in and talk with me about your daughter (292).
“Between them the invisible wall ‘Not to Be Contaminated by Parental Germs or Physical Affection (294).’In the orphanage where she had put Emily, she could not even be in contact with her. The walls would block them and the letters she sent where the nuns stated “We simply do not have room for children to keep any personal possessions (Olsen 295).” It came to the point where Emily had to found love in the teacher care. The mother had noticed it after the phone call and just told the teacher to take care of Emily for her.
True love can wait, as my mother told me. In “I Stand Here Ironing”, if the mother had not rushed herself to be with men, maybe things would have been better between her and Emily. Many women in the 60’s went to school in order to gain a husband while pursuing a degree. The mother should have kept pursuing her degree because as seen in the story it only led to more problems in the future. They were poor; her husband had walked out. This contributed to the lack of attention to Emily.The mother was young and she wanted to enjoy life. Emily was too young to stay alone and take care of the mother kids while she is being reckless.
