Jelinas’ #CBR4 Review #23: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Call me simple-minded and a traitor to my sex, but I love the sweetness and old-fashioned morals of Little Women. I cried. Like, a lot.
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Cannonball Read IV 
I love Little Women! And I really liked your review. I don’t think it’s anti-feminist, particularly considering its historical and cultural context. In fact, I think it echoes a lot of Mary Wollstonecraft’s ideas from A Vindication of the Rights of Women with regard to education and not pretending to be an idiot so men will like you and so on. The girls are encouraged to be independent, they’re encouraged to fulfil their intellectual and creative pursuits, to marry for love rather than cash or status and to take an active part in their world with regard to making it better, which was quite daring for the time and not completely irrelevant today. The point I think Alcott tries to make, particularly in the later books of the series, is that it’s possible to do all this, to achieve things, without losing femininity and feminine skills, a reaction to the concern that women with brains and drive were unfit for homemaking.
I totally agree!! I just think a lot of people would be dismissive these days of how the girls are encouraged to excel in homemaking instead of pursuing “real” careers. I’m glad that there are others out there who enjoyed Little Women, too. I also love Little Men!!