BERNARD SHAW AND THE FEMALE VOICE
BERNARD SHAW AND THE FEMALE VOICE

Summary/Abstract: This paper deals with the basic aspects of Bernard Shaw’s artistic and socialistic approaches to the feminist causes. Shaw’s views on female self and sexuality have been found controversial by various critics, primarily because they ridicule traditional roles of women as wives and mothers. As such, they have been the source of a fundamental misunderstanding of Shavian art and politics. By providing the suitable context for Shaw’s feminism and by delineating various responses to Henrik Ibsen’s concept of the New Woman, the paper traces Shaw’s gradual transition from his early description of women as confined to the realm of the domestic and sexual to his later championship of female issues, as seen in his ardent support for women’s right to work, get divorce, educate themselves, and become equal to men.

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