A Doll House Women's Rights

An Analysis of Women´s Rights in A Doll´s House and Modern Society Henrik Ibsen´s A Doll´s House is a literary masterpiece written over 130 years ago in 1879. This play follows the life of a middle-class married couple, Nora and Toravold, and their seemingly perfect life. What one begins to see as the play progresses is the underlying toxicity of the relationship and how it ultimately causes the marriage to fall apart. This toxicity is a mixture of a variety of problems such as dishonesty, resentment, and most importantly, inequality between the partners that ends up breaking them apart. The issue of women’s rights is made clear in this piece, especially in the dialogue and actions of Nora and her husband, Toravold. This inequality foreshadows

Nora is used to domestic work: “Yes; odds and ends, needlework, crochet-work, embroidery, and that kind of thing” (Act 1) while the modern women has evolved to work as a doctor, lawyer, business woman, etc. Despite the changes, the issue that remains are small but significant inequalities in pay, occupations, and overall respect between men and women. The pay gap between the genders is an example and although it is narrowing, sadly still exists. Globally, women earn 24% less than men and the closest country to closing the pay gap (Iceland) is still 10 cents away at 90 cents to the male dollar (UN Women, “Fact Sheet: Global”). Surprisingly, the US isn’t the leader in women’s rights as it lands around the middle in the pay gap range at 70-75 cents to the male dollar (UN Women, “Fact Sheet: Global”). Furthermore, occupational segregation and the constant fear of sexual harassment in the workplace is evident and only negatively affecting how and where women work. Some might believe that women have no true problems in the workplace, claiming that because women are more likely to graduate college with a bachelor’s degree than men, that they in turn will get more high ranking positions than men. While women do tend to graduate with a bachelor’s more than men, women still do not get better jobs. Bidwell states: “Although they're increasingly likely to work in historically male-dominated professions – many of which tend to have higher salaries – women still are overrepresented in lower-paying occupations. Women make up 56 percent of workers in the 20 lowest-paid jobs, and just 29 percent of those in the 20 highest-paid jobs, the report says” (Bidwell). Because of this, I believe that women still face an abundance of unfair struggles due to stereotypes and cultural