I Stand Here Ironing

Olsen (1912-2007) was an active participant in the women’s rights movement known as second-wave feminism, which built on the secondary goals of the suffrage-driven first-wave feminist movement. In America, first-wave feminism wound down in the 1920s after the passing of the 19th Amendment, leaving second-wave feminism to peak in the 1960s and 1970s. Second-wave feminism focused on reproductive rights, sexual liberation, and broadening opportunities for women in arenas like education, employment, sports, etc.

“I Stand Here Ironing” illustrates why these movements were necessary. When explaining her choice of work as a single mother in the 1930s, the narrator says, “Except that it would have made no difference if I had known. It was the only place there was. It was the only way we could be together, the only way I could hold a job” (750). Of course, it was difficult for everybody to get work during the Great Depression; however, this being the “only” option for Olsen’s narrator points to the problem of being a woman at a time when educational and employment opportunities were starkly limited by gender.

With some justification, later feminists have critiqued second-wave feminism for its perceived normativity—i.e., its focus on the needs and desires of white, heterosexual, middle-class women.