How we cite our quotes: (Part.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
There have been no men on Whileaway for at least eight centuries—I don't mean no human beings, of course, but no men—and this society, run entirely by women, has naturally attracted a great deal of attention since the appearance last week of its representative and its first ambassador, the lady on my left here. (1.7.19)
On Joanna's Earth, people often use the word "man" to mean "human," and the novel suggests that this reflects a significant social problem, which is that men in Joanna's world are the only people who enjoy full human rights.
Quote #2
The door opened at this point and a young woman walked in, a woman of thirty years or so, elaborately painted and dressed. I know I should not have assumed anything, but one must work with what one has; and I assumed that her dress indicated a mother. That is, someone on vacation, someone with leisure, someone who's close to the information network and full of intellectual curiosity. If there's a top class (I said to myself), this is it. (2.5.17)
When Janet mistakes the Colonel's secretary for the person in charge, we learn something crucial about the Whileawayan class system (such as it is). On Whileaway, all women cycle through periods of labor and leisure, work and ease. Mothers may be the "top class," but every Whileawayan gets the same "vacation" from work from age thirty to thirty-five.
Quote #3
Now, nobody can be more in favor of women getting their rights than I am. Do you want to sit down? Let's. As I said, I'm all in favor of it. Adds a decorative touch to the office, eh? Ha ha! Ha ha ha! Unequal pay is a disgrace. But you've got to remember, Janet, that women have certain physical limitations [...] and you have to work within your physical limitations. (3.2.136)
Although Ewing makes fun of the new feminist movement at the party on Riverside Drive, he puts his finger on one of its central concerns: women's right to equal pay for equal work. Like other men of his time, Ewing uses stereotypes about women's physical limitations in order to justify a system that benefits from their unpaid labor in the home.
Quote #4
Little Whileawayans are to their mothers both sulk and swank, fun and profit, pleasure and contemplation, a show of expensiveness, a slowing-down of life, an opportunity to pursue whatever interests the women have been forced to neglect previously, and the only leisure they have ever had—or will have again until old age. (3.4.1)
On Whileaway, motherhood means having five years of leisure, whereas in Jeannine's and Joanna's worlds, it can amount to a lifetime of domestic servitude. How do the experiences of Whileawayan mothers compare to the experience of a woman like Mrs. Dadier? What social conditions make these experiences so radically different?
Quote #5
At twenty-two they achieve Full Dignity and may either begin to learn the heretofore forbidden jobs or have their learning formally certificated. They are allowed to begin apprenticeships. They may marry into pre-existing families or form their own. (3.5.17)
On Whileaway, "dignity" isn't just an abstract concept, it's an indicator of social rank. Children achieve "Middle Dignity" when they graduate from school, they achieve "Three-Quarters Dignity" when they enter the workforce, and they earn "Full Dignity" at twenty-two, the Whileawayan age of adulthood. On Whileaway, social rights and privileges relate directly to the contributions that Whileawayan women are expected to make to their society.
Quote #6
Then he said I must understand that femininity was a Good Thing, and although men's and women's functions in society were different, they had equal dignity. Separate but equal, right? Men make the decisions and women make the dinners. (4.11.1)
When Laura's school psychologist uses the word "dignity," he means something very different from what the term means on Whileaway. What does women's dignity look like in Laura's world?
Quote #7
He expected me to start singing "I'm So Glad I'm A Girl" right there in his Goddamned office. And a little buck-and-wing. And a little n***** shuffle. (4.11.1)
This is one of the most inflammatory and contentious statements in The Female Man. Not only does Laura use a racial slur to make a point about sexism, but she also does it without offering any deeper analysis of the crucial differences between her experience as a white woman living in a patriarchal culture and the experience of a black man or woman living in a white supremacist society.
Quote #8
He: Darling, why must you work part-time as a rug salesman?
She: Because I wish to enter the marketplace and prove that in spite of my sex I can take a fruitful part in the life of the community and earn what our culture proposes as the sign and symbol of adult independence—namely money. (6.5.14-15)
This about sums it up. If money is "the sign and symbol of adult independence" in America, then, without being able to earn and keep money of her own, a woman cannot be treated as an independent adult. Instead, she can only be treated as Jeannine is treated by everyone in her world: as an overgrown child.
Quote #9
"Well, it's nobody's fault, I know (this is what I'm supposed to think). I know and totally approve and genuflect and admire and wholly obey the doctrine of Nobody's Fault, the doctrine of Gradual Change, the doctrine that Women Can Love Better Than Men so we ought to be saints (warrior saints?), the doctrine of It's A Personal Problem.
(Selah, selah, there is only one True Prophet and it's You, don't kill me, massa, I'se jes' ig'nerant.)" (7.5.9)
This is another of the novel's most inflammatory and contentious passages. Like Laura, Joanna draws a connection between women's oppression under patriarchy and the oppression of African peoples under white supremacy and, specifically, slavery. On top of that, she makes some not-so-subtle insinuations about Islam by relating Muslim believers' worship of Allah to the lip service women are expected to pay to men.
Quote #10
Most women will continue to choose the conservative caretaking of childhood, the formation of beautiful human relationships, and the care and service of others. Servants. Of. The. Race. Why should we sneer at that? (8.8.34)
Aaaaaaand here it is. The Manland Boss is interested in getting women and men back together for one reason, and one reason only: because it's so handy when the ladies do stuff for the mens. Once again, the novel is drawing attention to the way women are exploited by a patriarchal system that represents domestic labor as a spiritual calling rather than work that deserves to be compensated.