An Unenlightened Society: The Third Character in Tillie Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing"

The narrator of Tillie Olsen's short story, "I Stand Here Ironing"" is a typical, working-class mother in her late thirties. Nineteen years before, her husband had abandoned her and her new baby and, in quiet desperation, she had worked long hours doing menial work in order to provide for herself and her child. Olsen uses the story to subtly give rise to many feminist issues. While the story focuses on two primary characters, the mother and her daughter Emily, a third prominent character also emerges: society. As a young, single mother of nineteen, the narrator faced limited options in an unenlightened, male-dominated society. She felt she had no further choices outside those she made as a young mother. However, Emily at nineteen has many more options available to her, as both the mother and society are more enlightened. As Emily enters adulthood, the molding of society will no longer oppress her.

A broad feminist view is that we live in a patriarchal society: a society of men, ruled by and for men. In this culture women earn less, have fewer rights, and are in many ways second-class citizens. In order to understand the feminist angles of the story, we must also consider the time period in which it was written. The story was published in 1961 and is set in that period. The narrator reflects back nineteen years, which places Emily as a newborn in the early 1940's. The text reinforces this, "She is a child of her age, of depression, of war, of fear" (246). In the early 1940's, women had earned the right to vote, but the idea of women's rights remained far from mainstream.

Instead, society viewed women as primarily mothers and housekeepers. The vast majority of jobs held by women were domestic in nature: waitress, cook, maid, and childcare are examples. Professional training was limited as well, to jobs deemed appropriate for ladies such as teaching and nursing. During World War II, factory jobs were increasingly offered to women, but after the war, many women returned to their domesticated lives. Men held the important jobs and were viewed as the primary "bread-winners" throughout society.

This is the environment in which Emily and her mother are forced to survive by any means necessary. Left alone to raise her baby daughter, the mother seeks work where she could find it. "It was the pre-relief, pre-WPA world of the depression" (241). At the time, society offers her no financial, food, or childcare assistance, as single mothers fortunately receive in later years.

As the mother narrates her story, the third major character, society, emerges. It steers both the mother and Emily and determines many of the paths they took through life. Emily and her mother often refer to this third character as "They". Throughout the story, "They" control Emily and her mother with wire and strings like puppets in a show, varying from subtle ways such as baby books the mother reads for advice, to life-altering decisions to send Emily to a convalescent home.

After spending a little over a year with her father's family, Emily returns to her mother at the age of two, "Old enough for nursery school they said, and I did not know then what I know now..." (242). "Except that it would have made no difference if I had known. It was the only place there was" (242). Emily's mother knows that Emily is not happy in the nursery school, that the teacher is unkind. But there are no other choices available to them at this time.

After a few years of struggling through nursery school, Emily becomes ill with red measles, and has difficulty in her recovery. "...I had to send her away again" (242). "They persuaded me at the clinic to send her away to a convalescent 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'" (243). While the mother has another option, keeping Emily at home, she truly feels she has no other choice. "They" convince her that she is doing the best thing for Emily.

"They" become the controllers of Emily's world while at the convalescent home. Emily is at the mercy of all their rules and policies. Emily has a friend at the home, but "They" move her away from Emily because "'They don't like you to love anybody here'" (243). "They" do not let Emily keep the letters from her family, because there is not sufficient room for each child's personal effects. Even her meals are forced upon her: "They had runny eggs for breakfast or mush with lumps, Emily said later" (243). The mother convinces the social worker to let Emily return to their home, a feat that takes eight months to accomplish. In this case, "They" take on the identity of the social worker.

Society has long overvalued physical appearance as well, another long-standing feminist argument. Many young girls learn that to be pretty is to be rewarded. Each generation of girls sees cute, attractive girls as stars of stage and screen. Society rewards these select few based on little more than their looks. Unfortunately, these impressions are made on every little girl in her youth, and usually affect a female's self-image well into adulthood. Feminists have attempted to bring this issue to light, to educate the public and emphasize that women should be given opportunities based on their abilities and their accomplishments. But society has been slow to react: attractive people are still rewarded, and most women still suffer from self-image issues.

Emily discovers this early in her life. While her mother describes her as a beautiful baby, society considers her homely in her childhood years. Emily agonizes over her appearance: "'If I had that copper hair,' 'If I had that skin...'" (244). At the time, society's standard for a little girl's beauty was Shirley Temple. Like many young girls, these images cause Emily to fret over something out of her control "...-what are they thinking of me?" (245) Olsen mentions Emily's early insecurities several times in the story, and the insecurities are still with Emily at age nineteen.

Even the mother buys into this idea of favoring attractiveness. Her second child, Susan, is described as "golden- and curly-haired and chubby, quick and articulate and assured, everything in appearance and manner Emily was not" (244). Not only does she think of her second daughter as more attractive, but she is also able to spend more time with Susan, as well as apply the skills of motherhood she learned while raising Emily. But the mother does not always view Emily as unattractive.

Only mentioned briefly, Emily does blossom into a beauty: "You do not guess how new and uneasy her tenancy in her now-loveliness" (241). The mother does not view this as her daughter's true strength, though, and she does not use it to persuade the reader to feel that Emily will be successful because of her beauty. Instead, the mother focuses on Emily's struggle to survive and grow in spite of the hardships they had endured.

Perhaps the most glaring societal issue of the story can be found in the fact that the mother was Emily's sole caretaker. Emily's father abandons them when Emily is eight months old. The problem of women left with the responsibility of rearing children is a primary concern for feminists. They see in the situation all the details of sexual politics and the double standard: the man goes free and the woman is trapped without skills, equal job opportunities, and adequate care for her children. Torn by the emotional needs of the child and economic necessities, the mother's life becomes a vicious circle of physical and emotional exhaustion. The oppression arising from the unequal sharing of parental responsibility is one of the motivations behind a fight by the feminists for adequate government-supported childcare centers, equal job opportunities, and equal pay.

When Emily is seven, her mother remarries, and Emily "had a new daddy now to learn to love" (242). Even the mother's re-marriage is a survival tactic: after struggling to raise Emily alone, she does something to help herself and to secure her future, using the only means available to her. The new stepfather is virtually absent for the remainder of the story, contributing nothing of significance in Emily's development.

Even though the mother did her best, with the tools she had, to raise Emily into a healthy adult, she still feels personally responsible: "What did I start to gather together, to try and make coherent? I was at the terrible growing years" (245). Regardless of how well-adjusted children turn out, many mothers feel an age-old guilt over any mistake or shortcoming they experienced in their motherhood. This is simple human nature, and every mother just does the best they can, with the tools they have.

After struggling for so many years, both Emily and her mother have learned how to persevere. At age nineteen, Emily has options that her mother never did. The very year this story was published, oral contraceptives became available to American women. Within three years, the Civil Rights Act would pass, protecting women against sexual discrimination in job opportunities. Emily's mother realizes that society is becoming more enlightened and that Emily will have additional choices. With greater options, plus the strength she developed struggling through her early years, Emily will survive. She is an individual. She is more than a member of a certain economic class who could be helplessly molded and shaped by her social position. She is "more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron" (246).

Work Cited: Olsen, Tillie. 1956 "I Stand Here Ironing", Making Literature Matter, Pages 241-246.