2-3-4 Challenge Book Discussions #1 discussion

This story illustrated examples of women’s power or lack of it in the era. What are your observations? Are some of these still issues we see today?

Women certainly didn't have a lot of choices in those days. You lived with your family, then married and lived with your husband. You didn't actually own anything or have any money in that was specifically yours. Your father or husband had a complete hold over you and could make your life miserable.

If you didn't have a father or husband, you were most likely on your own. What kind of jobs were available for women at that time? Certainly not too many. And those that were available would most likely not pay enough money to actually live on.

Robin, you made the essential point about women going from under one male control (their fathers) to another (their husbands). If you didn’t, you were vulnerable and powerless, especially without money. Titles and land couldn’t pass to women. Just think, it’s only been a few years that the UK allowed the female legacies to assume the throne even if a male was born later.

While it’s nowhere near as bad today, it distressed me that women are still struggling for some basics in equality. We made huge strides in the 60s and 70s that seemed to lapse back in the 90s.

Here we had some great examples. Sarah WITH power because she had the means to educate and train herself and is self sufficient. She’s a rarity in these times. Terry who lost all power when her husband died and creditors wiped her out financially. She was a woman of means now living at the kindness of relatives but time is running out. Garnet who lost the protection of her father and was essentially bartered, trapped in a marriage and forced to suffer the horrors of sexual assault and divorce is no option. And then poor Norah, being passed around as a mistress because her uncle is spineless and selfish. She was always powerless. Who needs relatives like this. Finally, there’s Elizabeth Decker who married well, has a comfortable place in society and has learned how to get, maintain and use her power.

We’re still navigating this today. I thought Thompson did a magnificent job in providing realistic illustrations.

This book really emphasized the extent to which women were dependent upon the men in their lives - husbands, fathers, employers - and just how much power a man could wield. Women were considered little more than chattel and men had the right to treat them as such.

Unfortunately, there are societies in which this is still the case.

Sometimes worse than chattel. Men could get away with murdering their wives in plain sight, even in America.

Jonetta wrote: "Sometimes worse than chattel. Men could get away with murdering their wives in plain sight, even in America."

Yes, or having them locked up in asylumns if they became inconvenient.