Hall 1 Tania Hall Professor Zintgraff English-1113_118 April 9th 2018 Taking Women Students Seriously In Adrienne Rich’s” Taking Women Students seriously”, is about women dealing with the difficulties female students encountered during the 1940’s through the 1970’s.
Rich’s essay reminds readers that women were facing difficulties going to school and getting a job in a male-dominate setting, therefore being classified as second-class citizens. In the story she is talking about graduating from an all-girls school in the 1940’s where they had the majority of staff were independent, unmarried women, most of the women held doctorate degree`s but mostly forced to work during the Great Depression to take Secondary teaching jobs. These women cared about the “life of the mind” they gave up time and energy to teach beyond any limit of teaching hours to show that they had special interest and ability. The women were going to libraries, art museums, and lectures at neighboring colleges to set work on research projects, they were also given French and Latin readings. Sometimes the women felt like they were being “pushed” by them we held those women in respect, women were vital individuals who defined not by their relationships but their personalities although under pressure women wanted to get married and have kids their lives didn’t matter to anyone they were referred as “old maids”.
