Change in roles of women /based on the movie “Mona Lisa smile”/
The society of women was subordinated to men for thousands of years. There were minor changes throughout the centuries – for example in the renaissance era – but the situation changed significantly only from the time of world wars. The condition added up to women nearly of the whole world became indispensable in the war efforts. Thus the World Wars started a new era for women's opportunities to be recognized for efforts outside of the home. Women also gained enough confidence and bravery to individually show their needs to the public. More and more women‟s rights movement took place from that time on. This movie called “Mona Lisa smile”, adumbrates the role of women in that decade and then the awakening of consciousness. The film opens in the socially conservative setting of the 1950‟s drawn from the experience of Katherine Watson, a teacher of art history. She is relocated from California to work at Wellesley College, a prestigious New England women‟s school. The screen play casts Julia Roberts as Watson. The opening is an „in Medias Res‟. We can notice the knowledge of the students right from the start. When the teacher holds her first lesson, they already know all of the answers, because they have studied the whole syllabus prior to the beginning of the semester. This means that the school and the system itself, teaches them to be maximalists and to make the best out of themselves. The college, which should be focused on education, is obsessed with marriage. The board of directors, with the teaching staff on its side, want to raise well-educated women in order to be the best housewives for their husbands. Beside etiquette they learn physics, literature, art and so forth. But doesn‟t it sound ironic? They are making efforts to learn all these sciences, but then they won‟t have an opportunity to use them and they have to accept that they are housewives, just because these are “the roles women were born to fill” as Betty said. That idea occupies Katherine‟s mind and she tries to revolutionize that system. The best example for that is one of the students, Joan Brandwyn.
She is a bright, enthusiastic young woman who is torn between her dream to become a lawyer and the social pressure for women her age to marry and have children. When Joan goes to discuss her “C” grade with Watson, the professor later asks, “What is your plan after graduating?” Joan replies that she intends to marry, despite being one of the most intelligent students. Watson is aware of Joan‟s abilities, and inquires which law school would be Joan‟s top pick. When Joan tells Watson that she loves Yale, it is obvious that she does not want to follow the pattern of other women, but dreams of being a professional. Katherine carries on fighting for the independence of woman, but it turns out that she has to overcome several snags. The school director threatens her many times, and the process of student‟s individual thinking is interrupted by Betty, who has a strong influence on everyone. Betty‟s mother is a conservative person, so that her bringing-up reflects that. She is the greatest opposition – after the director- against Watson‟s feminist perspectives. There is a great turn in Betty‟s life. She gets married. First she enjoys being married and takes advantage of it. She doesn‟t have to attend six lessons; married students are not expected to have regular attendance, which is an unfair benefit. Although it is a written rule, Watson tells her that she will fail her if she won‟t make an appearance. After a couple of months, Betty experiences the real life of a housewife. She has no voice in any decisions, she has to prepare food for her husband‟s schedule and accept everything that he tells her. She can sustain this way of life for a short period, but then the example of her art teacher helps her to take a step. She starts divorce proceedings, despite her mother‟s will, and regardless of the fact that divorcing was not widely accepted practice at this time. Katherine reached her goal to make them think freely. Even though, the board didn‟t approve of her liberate way of thinking, they gave her the chance to teach in the college for one more year, because there had never been any precedent for such a high attendance for a lesson. However, they had several restrictions, such as not having a sexual relationship with any of the colleagues and to teach only in the traditional way of Wellesley College. She had enough honour to reject the offer, which is a good model of the thinking of a modern woman.
Over six decades everything has turned upside-down. Women‟s struggles for equality gain more and more attention and finally they reached their goals in most countries. They‟ve become equal to men; although a kind of nice distinction remained, thanks to psychology. They started to work outside the house in order to support themselves personally and not to depend on anyone, but this has just changed everything. The time which can be spent on children has halved and they can‟t give the appropriate attention to them. In retrospect there were much more children in a household, yet families could raise them. But now, with two working parents, the average children for one household are ranging from one to three. So how can that be? With the increasing earnings, our demands have also increased. The live from day to day life system has become obsolete. Nowadays we want to assure our child has the best financial background whatsoever we can create. The best tuition, the best clothes, the best insurance, the best electronic devices and we can continue it in perpetuity. So it follows that we are the ones who made parenting so circumstantial. Putting an end to the marriage of convenience was unequivocally a good step, but thus we have to face the consequences. Divorcing is considered to be so common, that it has nearly grown to be a fashion. What is more, there are still lovers in most relationship, even if they‟re told to be love marriages. The roles are often inverted. There are more and more examples for stay-at-home fathers with working mothers who gets home late in the night. In conclusion with the effacement of the Betty kind, and with the increasing number of Katherine Watson type we‟ve finally arrived at a point when women have free will. But it also means that society must view women differently as well. There are options open to women; they can pursue education and work, or stay at home-even more commonly they can do both. But if they choose the former one, they should not secede from all traditions; they should spend more time with their children. Fehér Dániel
Source: http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/iej/articles/v6n3/hamdan/review.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa_Smile
