Gloria Alred, Betty Frohme, Helen Gurly Brown, and Jane Fonda, all these modern women have one thing in common, they are all active feminists. Feminism in American society today is a widely accepted practice. For this, many women are allowed to express themselves through the ideals of this theology. Women such as Joan of Ark, Queen Elizabeth, and even the Virgin Mary have changed the views on women in the past and that allows people to accept feminism today. Geoffrey Chaucer scribed The Canterbury Tales, and within that collection of stories, he created one of the pioneers of feminism. The Wife of Bath strives to create equality through both of the sexes, though she lives within a society where men control women.
Alison of Bath, one of the many travelers on the road to Canterbury is also the one remembered most often. She is the most controversial of the travelers. Known as " shrew, virago, femme fatale; she is the voice of feminism, or the projection of centuries of male misogynist fantasy (Cooper 168)." The Wife of Bath is bold, outspoken, lovely, strong, and intelligent; a concoction of poison to any chauvinistic male that may chance to cross her path. She is.
plump, florid, jolly, bold, lusty, voluptuous, and most voluble of women, she cannot resist first telling her companions, with artless and engaging frankness, for there is nothing salacious in her talk, about her sexual experiences. (Halliday 118) .
She is the perfect feminist. G.L. Kittridge offers that she is a " feminist in her effort to dispense with images of women altogether, but the Wife of Bath is also imprisoned by the anti-feminism of her culture (120)." She is a freedom fighter for the women of the 14th Century. She fights for a matriarchy, where women rule, but in her attempt, only achieved sexual equality. Alison also believes that a man must first give up his power and homely rule to his partner before they can experience happiness through their own marriage.
