The article “Women’s Burden: WE LIKE TO THINK THE PAINFUL SACRIFICES OUR MOTHERS MADE ARE IN THE PAST” is available at http://www.womensburden.com/womensburden/. BUT ARE THEY?” by Garry Wills touches on topics such as the expectation for women to be the sole caretakers of their children and for them to stand by as men take control of their lives with little to no say in the matter. Wills writes about the injustices he witnessed his mother face during his youth, as well as the hardships other women, like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, had been confronted with as women surrounded by men who had far less struggle in getting what they want. Like many women at the time, Wills' mother, Mayno, was the sole caretaker of her children as was the expectation, while her husband had habits of infidelity with few repercussions.…show more content… Some, like Ruth Bader Ginsberg, worked to change these standards by fighting towards positions of power using the excuse of bettering herself for a man: “‘Why are you here occupying a seat that could [by which he implied should] be held by a man?’...She answered in terms a man of Griswold’s position could understand, saying that her husband was in the second year at Harvard Law, and she wanted to understand his work -- that is, she justified her advance in terms of better serving a man” (Wills). The relation between this article and the theme of society placing harmful roles on women is shown when Wills writes of the classes women were directed towards in high school and college: “Even women with high school or college diplomas were regularly educated to be homemakers, steered into home economics classes instead of ‘hard’ math or science.If women had more education or wider experiences, they were treated as intruders into areas not ‘natural’ for them”
