Becky, Heather, John Group Blog Post

Gender disparities are a common theme throughout Song of Solomon. These differences characterize the dual struggle between civil rights for men and women’s rights along with it. By examining gender roles in the book we can see the importance Robinson places on not “leaving a body.” We interpret this to mean that men should not leave or forget about the women in their lives as they search to define their role in a society that treats them with violence and discrimination. The differences presented in the book are reflections of the violence and struggle we found throughout our research.

Women’s jobs were to maintain the household, a role that was ascribed to them throughout the 20th century. Women were made out to be “delicate flowers” that needed to be protected from the evils of the working world. The cult of domesticity was a southern ideal that held that a modern woman needed to be “domesticated” and elegant, therefore the only suitable position for her was to be submissive to her husband while maintaining the household. This ideal was most common among southern plantation wives. In the north more women took factory jobs to fill shortages brought on by World War II. These all-women factory jobs were considered a way to foster the ideal woman who would still be expected to conform to the norms of the cult of domesticity. These factories offered forms of education, residence within the factory, and strict schedules that the female workers were expected to follow (Watson 38). This was also seen as a way to get women out of their parents’ house until they were married giving them a trade to help them earn extra money. It was not designed to permanently integrate them into the workforce by any means. In the south, if a woman were to take a job she was expected to be a maid in a household, as seen with Corinthians in Song of Solomon. However, most women were simply expected to make the man of the house’s life easier. Southern women were less likely to find themselves in factory work at all as they held onto the ideals of the cult of domesticity more strictly than northern women did. The difference between northern and southern women is a nuanced picture in this book. Images of violence help explain more clearly the roles women played during a time when men were making the rules.

Violence is a major theme of Song of Solomon. Throughout all of America’s history, violence has played a major role in everyday society. This was especially present during the riots that occurred between the 1940’s – 1960’s. Most of these riots occurred because of race and civil rights. Another part of these riots, and all other violence during this time, was who partook in all of these violent acts. “The typical rioter was a young black male,” (Graham 16). Usually the only time women were involved in violent acts during this time was when they committed a non-violent crime such as larceny, or when they were the victim to rape or some sort of sexual harassment. In The Detroit Rioters of 1943: A Reinterpretation, they took a sample of the people who were arrested in the riots to get an idea of what kind of people were involved in these riots. Of the 246 people that they analyzed, almost 88% were African-American, and 95% of them were males (Wilkerson 57). This sample of the people who were involved is very accurate, as blacks were trying to work for their civil rights during this period. Males throughout history have always been seen as more violent, and this sample proves this point. Throughout Song of Solomon violence is seen time and time again, and it can be seen throughout this book the difference in who partakes in these violent events. Every person who is involved in the seven days is a male, and along with this, the only people who partake in the hunt of the bobcat are males. Women’s roles were is essence never defined by them but rather resulted due to the absence of men due to greater world conflicts.

When their husbands went off to fight in World War II, it was necessary for many women to replace them in their jobs. During this time, there was also a huge increase in women working as nurses. After the war, most women stopped working and went back to their roles as housewives, raising children and keeping house. It was the social norm of married women to worry only about their duties in the home, and some employers even prohibited the hiring of married women. Many women did not even want to have a job because it was too difficult to have a job and maintain their job at home. However, some women were motivated by the past decades’ economic turmoil to keep or get a job. Working women held traditionally-female jobs such as secretaries, teachers, in retail, and mostly nurses. Female nurses in the 1950s (primarily white and not married) encouraged other women to work, especially those who had previously worked as nurses. Since there was a need for nurses, employers stopped prohibiting the hiring of married women, and part-time work was introduced into American society. Married mothers were now more open to the idea of working if it meant they could work while their children were in school. This was a major factor in the increase in women’s employment in the 1950s.

Our research shows that American women, especially African American women, had little to no say in their lives. It was common place for many women to feel left behind as their husbands, father, or brothers were allowed to go out into the world and make something of themselves. Women were thought of as pieces of furniture within the household, having no other use outside of that setting. Robinson addresses these ideas through her use of female characters in Song of Solomon. Robinson explicitly addresses this idea during Lena’s long speech in which she chastises Milkman for thinking he has any right to dictate the course of her life.




Faue, Elizabeth. Community of Suffering & Struggle: Women, Men, and the Labor Movement in Minneapolis, 1915-1945. Gender & American culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991. Print.
Graham, Hugh Davis. The Public Historian. University of California Press, 1980.

Irons, Charles F. The Cult of Domesticity, Southern Style. Reviews in American History 38.2 (2010): 253-258. Project MUSE. Madison, WI. 18 Aug. 2010 < http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

Watson, JH. Cult of Domesticity and the Lifestyle of Victorian American-women. Nineteenth Century, 7.4 (1982): 37-39.

Wilkerson, Martha, and Dominic J. Capeci Jr. The Detroit Rioters of 1943: A Reinterpretation. Michigan Historical Review. Central Michigan University, 1990.