Mama is the strongest woman I know. I’ve always called her my role model, my supermom, and my lifeline. My relationship with Mama started on a rough patch. She was barely at home, and if she was, she always nagged me to study for school or read books. As a child, I didn’t understand why Mama was never home or why she bossed me around. It took me years to understand her intention. Mama, like other mothers, makes tons of sacrifices for the sake of their family—most importantly, for their children. Some mothers have to work long hours to provide food at the table, even if it means spending less time with the family or not having enough rest. Others are single mothers who have to play the role of both mother and father by working multiple jobs because one job may not pay well. A hundred years ago, however, mothers–generally women–didn’t always have the means to sustain their families. Their privileges were nil, restricting their opportunities for social mobility.

Throughout history, women have experienced oppression under a patriarchal system, and women-of-color from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have it more difficult compared to white women because of oppressive laws, such as the Indian Removal Act and the Chinese Exclusion Act. These laws–although not targeting women-of-color specifically–limited the rights that people-of-color have in America. Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon follows the life of the protagonist Milkman Dead, but also depicts the lives of African-American women in the mid-twentieth century who had no opportunities for social mobility. On the other hand, Virginia Woolf’s essay A Room of One’s Own reinforces that a woman must have sufficient money and her own living space to write her books. Thus, the narration in Morrison’s Song of Solomon and Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own asserts that women-of-color experience more difficulty in terms of social mobility, and societal factors such as patriarchy, class, and race contribute to women’s oppression, which continues to plague Latin America through rampant femicide and violence against women.

In 1848, in the small town of Seneca Falls, New York, suffragettes Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia Mott started the women’s rights movement to fight for women’s right to vote. The movement eventually gained traction among women from different backgrounds across the country, until its success in 1919 when President Woodrow Wilson passed the Nineteenth Amendment that gave women political equality. Nevertheless, the women’s rights movement has always focused on the narrative of white women. When the Nineteenth Amendment was passed, this right didn’t extend to women-of-color in America, creating an intersectional struggle for people-of-color and women at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. While women have more liberty in most modernized nations, there are still parts of the world that restrict their basic human rights, from what they wear to their political power. Latin America, despite being neighbored by progressive North America, has been notorious for gender inequality. The past three decades oversaw the rise of femicide in this area. In the 1990s, Mexico gained international traction for its constant female homicides, eventually seeping its way to other countries. Latin America is notorious for machismo culture, or male’s excessive pride. Machismo, in turn, gives men the prerogative to abuse their superior position, enabling them to commit atrocious acts of murder and violence towards women. Furthermore, the traditional gender roles (e.g. cooking, cleaning, and taking care of children) imposed on women–and their failure to comply–makes them vulnerable to abuse and murder. 

Even though Song of Solomon focuses on the struggles of African-Americans through Milkman’s development, the book features female African-American characters that show facets of intersectional struggle in the mid 1900s. Throughout the story, most women are portrayed as background characters, rendering them often one-dimensional figures who are incapable of personal and career advancement. Ruth Foster Dead, Milkman’s mother, comes from a middle-class family and falls into a loveless and abusive marriage with her husband, Macon Dead Jr. Unfortunately, her identity as a woman depends on the men around her life: her husband and her son. Morrison writes that Ruth, “had been so desperate to lie with her husband and have another baby with him, the son she bore was first off a wished-for bond between herself and Macon, something to hold them together and reinstate their sex lives” (Morrison 131). Ruth and Macon’s loveless marriage inflicted adverse psychological effects on Ruth, forcing her to drug him to bed her and have a child. Even though their marriage bore Milkman, Macon continued to abuse her physically and mentally, rendering Ruth trapped in her situation. Similarly, Milkman’s love interest, Hagar, falls in the same boat as his mother. Hagar is infatuated with Milkman to the point that she revolves her world around him. Once, Hagar attempts to change her appearance for Milkman, “No wonder he didn’t want me. I look terrible” (Morrison 308). Her desperation shows how she wants to be accepted by a man who only used her for her body. Ruth and Hagar’s experiences mirror the current violence against women in Latin America for the last two decades. For instance, Ruth’s husband Macon once “smashed [his fist] into her jaw” when she claimed that she is her “daddy’s daughter” (Morrison 67). On the other hand, Milkman continuously uses Hagar’s body for his pleasure without considering her romantic feelings for him, which could be considered a form of emotional violence. Latin America has been notorious for violence against women due to the impunity in the justice system, resulting in high rates of domestic abuse and rape. For instance, in El Salvador, 12 percent of reported cases against women revealed that local authorities were perpetrators of such crimes (Sabatini). Since female representation in most Latin American governments is virtually nonexistent, they are stuck helpless, preventing any attempts at possible reform – which is akin to Ruth and Hagar’s situation, who as women-of-color, are unable to flee their situation. 

From a broader perspective, Song of Solomon and A Room of One’s Own tackle women’s struggles and empowerment in different forms. At first glance, Song of Solomon doesn’t appear to discuss the topic of women at all because of its heavy focus on the repercussions of racism and generational abandonment among African-Americans, and most women characters are portrayed as weak and servile to the men in their lives. Unfortunately, Morrison’s portrayal of women is representative of women-of-color’s positions in society during the early twentieth century. One woman, however, stands out among the women characters in the book: Pilate Dead is an independent woman. She was able to raise her daughter, Reba, alone and didn’t rely on any manly figure to sustain herself. Furthermore, she acts like a guardian figure to Milkman throughout the book, showing her selflessness. Unlike Hagar and Ruth, she rejects revolving her life around men and chooses to be herself – which is uncharacteristic for most women at this time. 

On that note, Woolf’s essay A Room of One’s Own was written during about the same time period in which Song of Solomon’s was set, but it focuses on what women should require to be successful writers. In a way, this feminist essay encourages women to take control of themselves and use their talents wisely. The target audience appears to be women in general, but Woolf, coming from an upper-class background, fails to make an argument about how difficult it is for women-of-color and women from lower-class backgrounds to gain autonomy over their time and skill. During this period, women had to work jobs for long hours to sustain themselves and their families, leaving them barely any time for leisure such as writing. 

Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own takes a different approach to women and feminism through a narrative essay format. Coming from a comfortable lifestyle in England in the early twentieth century, Woolf contends that a woman must have sufficient money, intellect, and her own living space to become a successful fiction writer as she writes that “intellectual freedom depends on material things. Poetry depends on intellectual freedom. And women have always been poor … from the beginning of time” (Woolf 163). Woolf makes a valid point that women have always been “poor” from the beginning due to the gender structures imposed by men, impeding women from advancing themselves. Although Woolf makes a valid point in her essay, her argument is not flawless. As a white woman with an upper-class upbringing, she fails to recognize the struggles that lower-class women and women-of-color face. Women outside Woolf’s circle are unable to find the time or money to write due to underpaying jobs that require long hours. For example, in Latin America, women in the labor force are relatively low, and most of their jobs are underpaid and of lower quality. Occupational segregation, which places women in low-paying sectors, plays a huge part in this phenomenon, limiting women from working meaningful jobs that could help their career advancement. In her essay, Woolf’s failure to mention lower-class women and women-of-color implies that she views them negatively, who are incapable of being successful. The situation of women in Latin America is systemic, which could be said the same for the working conditions almost a hundred years ago. Even if Latin American women work low-paying jobs, this doesn’t mean that they are incapable of advancing themselves. 

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of women in Latin America lost their jobs, which only exacerbated the plaguing gender gap. Women without occupations are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation since they are more likely to take on any jobs in hopes of earning wages to sustain themselves. This was also palpable in Song of Solomon through sisters Magdalene and First Corinthians Dead’s individual experience: Magdalene spends her life working a job she doesn’t enjoy since it is difficult for her to find a way out of it, hence she feels “resigned to her life” (Morrison 189). Similarly, First Corinthians works as someone’s maid despite obtaining a good liberal arts education. Throughout the story, she tries to portray herself as someone with a “higher household position” than other women to elevate herself (Morrison 189). This behavior stems from the embarrassment that she feels from not working a job that aligns with her educational background. Both sisters come from a middle-class upbringing, but their race and lack of proper experience prevent them from finding jobs that suit their skills and interests.

Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own portray the struggles of women differently. Morrison narrated the hardships that women-of-color faced in the mid twentieth century, which unfortunately, is still palpable today in Latin America. Woolf, on the other hand, believes that a woman could only be comfortable in a singular path: which is having a room of their own and having a comfortable lifestyle. Regardless, Mama, being a person of color in America, has faced struggles with finding a well-paying job that aligns with her values and goals. It took her several trials to finally find the right job for her, which is very common among women since they are more prone to be discriminated against in the workplace. Mama may not have worked her dream job, but she still considers herself successful – and I do too. 

Works Cited

Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. Vintage International, 2004. First published 1977.

Sabatini, Christopher. “Why Is Latin America the Most Dangerous Region in the World for Women?” World Politics Review, 30 Nov. 1AD, www.worldpoliticsreview.com/why-are-femicide-rates-so-high-in-latin-america/. Accessed 15 Aug. 2022.

Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own. Harcourt Inc, 1989. First published 1929.