Writing Women's Lives

     After watching the documentary Writing Women’s Lives as well as reflecting on all of the works and themes we visited throughout this course, there is a rough timeline present of women’s literature. Decades ago, publishers didn’t think that anybody would want to read anything written by women, which made it very difficult for women to get their writing out. In addition, these women still believe that getting your work out to the people is getting even harder. They believe that the reason for this is because one, not many people are writing/reading anymore and two, the same people are being recognized. 

    Towards the end, one woman began to talk about the ups and downs of being a women writer and how happy it really makes you. She claimed that she would have more time to write if she didn’t have to worry about money - how she was going to sustain her family. Being a writer doesn’t promise you any income if you aren’t successful and being published. 

    Looking back, women's literature has come a long way, though. All of the women who spoke had been able to make a living off of writing which would have been radical back when women didn’t have as many rights. In addition, they spoke a lot on how they have the option to write whenever they want and for however long they want. This shows a lot of freedom on behalf of women as a whole, especially compared to some of the early authors we looked at in this course.