Gender Roles In Little Women

Gender plays a huge role in Little Women by Louisiana May Alcott because the roles of men and women were both very different during the 19th century. Knowing this, the women are supposed to be housewives, and the men are supposed to be out fending for their family. With this in mind, the father in the story is out at war and the mother is home with her children. However, one of the girls in the story plays more of a ‘male’ role than a ‘female’.
Jo is a symbol of feminism in this book for many reasons. First, she calls herself a ‘boy’ and tends to act like more of a boy than a girl like her sisters. This is true when she says, “I’m the man of the family now Papa is away.” (page 9) Also, after she was able to get to know her neighbor, Laurie;

First, the family is very poor because their father is out at war. This makes it so the family has to work together in order to survive on the money they have; and look for money elsewhere to inherit. This reminds me of when the mother told her daughters that the family down the street was also very poor and asked if they could give their breakfast to the family instead of eating it themselves. This shows a strong family bond, as well as a very caring group of individuals; since the girls all went to the house to give up their breakfast for the people in need. This also reminds me of when the family received a letter about where to get more money. After reading the letter, the family boated together to get to the destination written on the letter. This was a group effort in order to get something that they all needed. Each child also has their own book given to them by their mother as a guidebook. This helps keep the family closer together because they all have the same type of guidebook to relate to. The girls also worked together to get their mother a present for Christmas, as well as helped each other the best they could with any problem or obstacle they faced. For example, sicknesses, sharing of clothes, money, deaths in the family etc. With this in mind, the family tended to always be