APEngLangper711-12

Because the widespread education of women was not common until the nineteenth century, the arena of British and American literature was once largely male dominated: the role of women was most often to inspire rather than to create. Since then, however, the literary contributions of women have become increasingly important. More and more women have become storytellers, poets and prophets, the authors of dreams and ideas--the voices to whom we listen.

Upon reaching adulthood, she would never live without some form of domestic "help", and battling the "timid spiteful servant mind" throughout her life both enraged her and sustained her. It was easier for her to regard her servants as not quite real than to accept the fact of her dependence on others.

It's a compelling portrait of how rich and poor women of this time were locked into a strange and pernicious symbiosis, and a vital warning against social inequality.

Women working full time—not part time, not on maternity leave, not as consultants—still earn only 77 cents for every full-time male dollar.

If you’re a young woman who graduated last summer from high school, you will earn $700,000 less than the young man standing in line with you to get his diploma over your working life.

These conditions—leisure time, privacy, and financial independence— underwrite all literary production, but they are particularly relevant to understanding the situation of women in the literary tradition because women, historically, have been uniformly deprived of those basic prerequisites.

She writes a history of a woman's thinking about the history of thinking women: her essay is a reconstruction and a reenactment as well as an argument.

The minimum wage in Washington state goes up 37 cents on Jan. 1, to $9.04 an hour. Washington is one of only 10 states that ensure by law that their minimum wage keeps up with inflation

For a full-time worker, the higher minimum wage will mean about $770 more dollars a year.

I work so my husband and I can support our three children. I was really excited when I started working at the Wal-Mart in Kingsville, Texas, in 1996. During orientation, they made it sound so wonderful, like you’re going to get this and that, and they’re really family-oriented. They painted a pretty picture—but it’s not.

The managers were always telling us we’d better not go into overtime. But if you actually clocked out when your shift was supposed to be over, it would be like asking to lose your job. I knew the hours I worked, and the overtime would not be in my check.

Through her personal study, Ehrenreich sees the futility of the American dream as her various co-workers desperately attempt to break through their social strata and leave the life of the "working poor" behind. But housing and transportation costs, medical bills, and the price of basic needs create obstacles that are often insurmountable. Though Ehrenreich still sees hope and a strong drive to succeed within this community, she fears a future uprising as people "are bound to tire of getting so little in return and to demand to be paid what they're worth. There'll be a lot of anger when that day comes, and strikes and disruption."