“The most transient visitor to this planet, I thought, who picked up this paper could not fail to be aware, even from this scattered testimony that England is under the rule of a patriarchy”. Patriarchy is a society where men hold the most power over women. The quoted statement above parallels with what was said in chapter two about Patriarchy in that they discuss how women are beneath men. She looks through books at the library about women and comes upon a topic and a line that really intrigues her; about the physical inferiority of women. She comes to the conclusion that male scholars don’t care about the inferiority of women rather than defending the male superiority. “Have you any notion how many books are written about women in the course of one year? Have you any notion how many are written by men? Are you aware that you are, perhaps, the most discussed animal in the universe”? (pg. 26) This quote is basically saying that talking about women is done more than men. Even though they talk about it more, it’s usually in a negative way.
The front page of the New York Times newspaper article is titled, “Endorsements for Giuliani, Romney”. If a visitor to our country were to open up this newspaper they could have mixed feelings on patriarchy occurring in the United States. On one side, they could assume that the elections are only men and have no women in them. They could be excluding all females from them. On the other hand, they could also think nothing of it and just presume that women weren’t running this time around. I feel that the use of patriarchy in our country if someone from outside were to come on would have completely mixed feelings about it which is why I take either side of this.
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Yes, Woolf's observations of the library and the newspaper lead her to say that men have power, but seem to be angry and afraid of losing the power, and that men talk about women a great deal more than women talk about men.
I think comparing the two newspapers would take a more in-depth comparison.
Woolf says about the papers she reads that man's dominance is seen in that he was "the proprietor of the paper and its editor and subeditor. He was the Foreign Secretary and the Judge. He was the cricketer...He was director of the company...he suspended the film actress..." (Woolf 33-34). Did you look to see what gender the heads of state and ambassadors and company owners and athletes mentioned in the New York Times were? Do the representations of men still outnumber those of women in powerful, non-domestic roles? I think this would be the way to make an instructive comparison.
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