Representation of Women in the Works of Margaret Laurence and Alice Munro

Abstract

This paper examines the representation of women in the works of Margaret Laurence and Alice Munro, two major figures in Canadian literature whose writings offer a sustained critique of patriarchy and gendered social structures. Through a close analysis of selected novels and short stories, the study explores how women’s identities are shaped and constrained by cultural conditioning, domestic expectations, and moral surveillance. Both writers portray women not as idealized heroines or overt rebels, but as psychologically complex individuals negotiating emotional repression, sexuality, memory, and selfhood within restrictive social frameworks. The paper highlights recurring themes such as patriarchal conditioning, objectification, sexual double standards, conflict between domestic roles and creative ambition, and the significance of memory and trauma in the formation of female identity. It further demonstrates how silence, endurance, and introspection function as subtle forms of resistance rather than signs of passivity. By employing psychological realism and innovative narrative techniques, Laurence and Munro expose the invisible workings of gendered power in everyday life. The study concludes that their fiction offers a nuanced feminist perspective that validates women’s lived experiences while challenging traditional representations of gender and authority.