Women Warriors and Women with Weapons

Abstract

American women have long been engaged in the arduous battle of claiming equal rights, dignity, and strength of character. Contemporary American novelists who write of woman warriors take part in this battle by extending the boundaries of accepted behavior for women and, in fact, by lauding women who refuse to surrender to unfair socially mandated restrictions. American novelists employ the archetype of the women warrior in both the literal and metaphorical sense: their characters demonstrate the physical prowess and range of emotions (including anger) of women but additionally depict women’s metaphorical battle with restrictive public mores to effect social reform. Thus, the primary goal of this chapter is to demonstrate how the physical “battles” engaged in by fictional female warriors are symbolic of the new ground gained by real women in the struggle for equality.