A Shift in Women's Roles

After reading The Yares of the Black Mountains, I noticed that the roles of women were portrayed very differently. As I read, I compared women in the story to women we have read about earlier in the semester. I found that Davis described women doing activities that other authors had men doing.

In past stories and excerpts we have read, women tended to have responsibilities such as making toast, being social, taking care of the house, raising the children, and sewing. In The Yares of the Black Mountains, some women have these same responsibilities, while others are described as having more physically challenging roles. An example of this is on page 264 when the author describes a woman's work as: "She took an axe an' went out, an' didn't come home till mornin'. In three days she hed cut down logs an' built a hut, six feet by ten, among the laurels yonder, haulin' an' liftin' them logs herself..." This behavior is unusual to see women involved with in nineteenth century literature. Normally, women remained indoors and acted very dainty. This shift in thinking took me by surprise.

Another place we see this different portrayal of women is near the very beginning of the story. On page 243, Davis paints a scene by saying, "I saw a woman ploughing with an ox just now on the hillside, where it was so steep I thought woman, plough, and ox would roll down together." Working in the field is something rare to see a woman doing in literature at this time. Instead of working inside of the house, the woman is getting her hands dirty and doing what many would consider "man's work".

After discovering this shift in descriptions of women, I wondered why Davis would choose to do such a thing. It could be to raise awareness of equality for women. We discussed in class that The Yares of the Black Mountains can be considered an activist text, so women's rights may be an issue that the author was bringing to the surface.