ABSTRACT
The US presidential debates of 2008 and 2016 demonstrated the continuing pressure on women to be pleasant. Before commencing, a few caveats seem essential. First, Women’s Voices is a literature course taught in English. In a course with the inevitably political goal of increasing knowledge and understanding of women’s experience and writing, it is important to build in course practices that harmonize with feminist pedagogy. Studying a truly unlikable woman, such as Gladys Eysenach in Jezebel, provides an opportunity to practice empathy and to consider the ways that even the most despicable behavior may result partially from the roles imposed upon women. In its modernity and treatment of a community rather than a single character, The Break is an outlier on the syllabus of Women’s Voices and, more generally, a work that has yet to find its place in scholarly discussions.
