Anne Bradstreet - Feminine but Feminist Essay -- essays research paper

As a female in a highly patriarchal society, Anne Bradstreet uses the reverse psychology technique to prove the contingent of her belief of unfair and unequal treatment of women in her community. Women who wrote stepped outside their appropriate sphere, and those who actually published their work frequently faced sociable censure. Compounding this social pressure, many women faced crushing workloads and struggled with lack of leisure for written material. Others suffered from an unequal access to education, while others were dealing with the sense of intellectual inferiority offered to them from virtually every significant voice, that voice usually being male. Bradstreet was raised in an influential family, receiving an extensive education with access to private tutors and the Earl of Lincolns large library. She was part of an influential family who encouraged her writing and circulated it in manuscript with pride. That kind of private support did much to offset the possibility o f public disapproval.Bradstreet believed that women in her society were treated unfairly, and that gender should be insignificant. In her "Prologue" she addresses conflict and struggle, expressing her opinion toward womens rights, implying that gender is unimportant and male dominance is wrong. Bradstreet asserts the rights of women to learning and expression of thought, addressing broad and universal themes.The "Prologue" has a humble tone with slightly unfathomed surprises, containing a mut...