Breaking Gender Norms: Antonia Shimerda's Powerful Rebellion

Antonia Shimerda broke down the wall of female gender roles versus male gender roles whenever they were presented to her. She was not only strong in house chores, but strong in all of the “manly” labor as well. My Antonia, by Willa Cather, takes place during the Westward Expansion. During this time period, it was custom for women to cook, clean, and raise the children while the men worked on the farm. The author, Willa Cather, was one of few woman writers in the 1900’s. Popular literature was more often than not by male authors. This led me to pick gender roles as my topic for this project because I am inspired by how brave and strong Willa Cather was during a time when women were perceived to be inferior. She strongly relates to Antonia, and derived her character in the novel from her own

life, as a strong female leader who flouted society’s stereotypes.
Shortly after Antonia and her family immigrated from Bohemia to Nebraska in the U.S.A, the county of Black Hawk was met with an immensely harsh winter that brought tough times to the Shimerda family.

Her father killed himself in the family’s barn just after Christmas. This left Antonia’s older brother, Ambrosch, as the only man of the household. The Shimerda's had an abundance of land to tend to, as well as their animals, which left Antonia, as the eldest sister, to help Ambrosch on the farm, while their mother and younger sister, Yulka, stayed in the house. Antonia was practiced in these womanly roles as well.

The photographs of the girl by the rock wall, cutting wood, tending to the field, and tending to the fire represent the vast role Antonia took in her household. This is significant because it shows how Antonia overcame the stereotype of women only working in the house and taking care of the family. Although she later moved on the become a mother and wife, with the womanly roles, she knew both sides of what went into keeping up a family. She put her family first and stayed home to work on the family farm rather than attend school, like Jim asked of

her.
Society has a warped view of how life is supposed to be. All though people are not forced to conform, the majority do, which makes those, such as the Shimderdas, seem outcast because they defy the “white-picket fence” family image with a suicide and young girl working the fields. In this light, Antonia was a strong female, just as female writer of the 1900’s, Willa Cather.