In 1938, women were still living in a society dominated by men. Although they had gained the right to vote in 1920, they were far from equal. The crusade for women’s rights slowed down and began to diminish throughout the 1920's and with the Great Depression affecting the 1930's women’s rights were more or less forgotten. When small jobs became available, they were for men. Working women were seen as “un-American money grubbers, stealing jobs from men who needed them to support their families.” This anti-feminist attitude can be seen throughout John Steinbeck’s "The Chrysanthemums" in the treatment of Elisa Allen.

Elisa Allen is the 35-year-old wife of Henry Allen. The couple does not have children. In this time period, women were supposed to stay home and care for their children so they did not need to work. Because she was childless, Elisa treated her chrysanthemums like her children. She protected these flowers just as a mother would protect her children. These flowers are her pride and joy, which we see in her response when her husband tells her she has a strong crop this year- “In her tone and on her face there was a little smugness”. Through gardening, Elisa is able to express her mothering nature and is eager to help in the apple orchard when her husband mentions it. According to society, Elisa should have been caring for children while her husband worked.

This anti-feminist idea continues in Elisa’s physical description. “Her face was lean and strong… Her figure looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume…” These words do not to lend to the typical picture of feminine beauty. Continuing with the idea of her appearance, Elisa feels that her husband does not appreciate her beauty. Elisa scrubs her body raw while getting ready for her evening out with her husband. She puts on new underclothing, her nicest stockings, and “the dress that was the symbol of her prettiness." In keeping with the idea of the time, Elisa made herself look pretty for her husband. When Henry saw her he told her she looked nice, and later changed his compliment saying “you look strong enough to break a calf over your knee, and happy enough to eat it like a watermelon." Again, Elisa is not described in a way that let a reader picture a woman with feminine beauty.

Elisa’s feminine sexuality is also addressed in "The Chrysanthemums". In the 1930s, there was more of a patriarchal control over women’s sexuality. Birth control was taboo and only men were allowed sexual freedom. Society left women to do everything for a man and not acting on her wants. We see a sexual tension throughout Elisa and Henry’s marriage. Before their evening out, Elisa does everything she can to accentuate her femininity for her husband, which he overlooks.

We see, however, that the tinker recognizes Elisa’s femininity. In acknowledging her chrysanthemums in a way her husband does not, the tinker notices Elisa as a woman. Elisa expresses herself for the first time when she is talking about her flowers. It is in this conversation that she finally receives a feminine description, “Her eyes shone. She tore off her battered hat and shook out her dark pretty hair." Even in the interaction with the tinker, we see Elisa repress her sexuality, “her hand went out towards his legs in the greasy black trousers. Her hesitant fingers almost touched the cloth. Then her hand dropped to the ground. She crouched low like a fawning dog." Elisa gives the tinker a pot with some chrysanthemum sprouts as a way of giving herself to him.

Femininity is a theme throughout “The Chrysanthemums” and many of Steinbeck’s works. Unfortunately, Steinbeck is not the feminist. Country songs written by male artists tend to be in keeping with Steinbeck’s anti-feminism sentiment. Rather than compare the short story to a song like “Tipsy” by Jake Owen which at points mentions a girl’s mini-skirt and focuses on her looks; I chose the song “Girl in a Country Song” by Maddie and Tae.

In their song Maddie and Tae combat the misogyny that has become normal in country songs. They convey that they are tired of trying to live up to the “girl in a country song” expectation. Femininity is a theme in both “The Chrysanthemums” and “Girl in a Country Song," however; the works have different stances on femininity.

The first verse of “Girl in a Country Song” talks about outfits that girls in country music videos typically wear. In “The Chrysanthemums” Elisa dresses in a way to try to make her husband notice her. Maddie and Tae combat this idea that a woman has to dress to impress a man by saying “And it's gettin' kinda cold in these painted on cut-off jeans/I hate the way this bikini top chafes.” In these two lines it is conveyed that women should not be dressing to impress a man, and a man’s idea of beauty has become unrealistic.

Elisa’s feminine sexuality was suppressed in “The Chrysanthemums,” but it was in keeping with society’s idea of doing everything for a man. The second verse falls into the idea of a woman’s sexuality. The difference between this topic in Steinbeck’s short story and Maddie and Tae’s song is the presentation of it. Steinbeck suppresses women’s sexuality while modern male country songs tend to objectify women and over sexualize them. The song says “Tell me one more time, ‘you gotta get you some of that’/Sure I'll slide on over, but you're gonna get slapped.” This line is open about the over-sexualization of women while Steinbeck does not see his categorization of women this way. However, we do see Elisa object to the way Henry views her after he says she looks nice, “Nice? You think I look nice? What do you mean by ‘nice’?."

The chorus of “Girl in a Country Song” also echoes something we see in “The Chrysanthemums.” The song says “Now we're lucky if we even get/To climb up in your truck, keep our mouth shut and ride along.” In Steinbeck’s short story we see that Elisa quietly sits in the car while her husband drives. While Elisa and Henry do talk it is only surface conversation that her husband initiates. Both the song and the short story convey the old feeling that women should not speak unless spoken to.

In today’s society, there is a huge feminist movement. There has been a fight for women to receive equal pay as men, and recently a movement to remove “pink” taxes from things like feminine hygiene products. Because of this movement I feel that this story has a much different effect for us reading it in today’s time and today’s perspective. With the many waves of feminism that our country has faced, different books have been revisited as facets to inspire feminism. Over time, feminine literature is large enough to be its own genre. I feel that with this new wave of feminism we are currently experiencing “The Chrysanthemums” has the potential to be looked at as a story to add fuel to the fire.

A major theme in “The Chrysanthemums” is femininity. Throughout the history of the United States there have been multiple feminist movements. With each new wave of feminism we read literature a little differently than the last. Today, Steinbeck’s short story could be looked at as anti-feminist and misogynistic. This was most likely not the original intention of the author; however, it is difficult for readers to find the original purpose of the short story. We can only try to guess and understand the original purpose of the work and compare it to how we read it today.