Two short stories, The Yellow Wall-Paper by Ch. P. Gilman and I Stand Here Ironing T. Olsen portrays hardship and low status of women in society. Both authors depict the common oppression of women and resistance through maternal bonding and nurturing. It is possible to say that Olsen and Gilman succeed in creating a space for women to articulate themselves and their feelings. Thesis The short stories are based on a similar theme of the low social status of women in society but depict different outcomes and conflict resolution. The main similarity between short stories is that they depict oppression and low status of women caused by the gender gap and male dominance in society. In The Yellow Wall-Paper, the main character suffers from misunderstanding and lack of care while a single mother in I Stand Here Ironing suffers from an inability to earn for living and low wages paid for women. The mother recollects “After a while I found a job, hashing at night … so I could be with her days“ (Olsen 3). Gilman underlines that male physicians do not pay much attention to the mental states of women supposing it is nothing more than a fake. “If a physician of high standing, and one’s husband, assures friends and relatives that there is nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression–a slight hysterical tendency– what is one to do?” (Gilman). Gilman presents a constructed and discursive identity by having her protagonist take on the role of a mother and a wife. Gilman and Olsen seem to regard the woman’s role as an inescapable fate. In their struggle to extricate themselves from the situations, they do not blame their family who made such arrangements but the society and social traditions. For instance, in I Stand Here ironing, the mother lost a connection with her daughter Emily working hard all her life and having no time for her children. She asks herself: “What in me demanded that goodness in her? And what was the cost, the cost to her of such goodness” (Olsen 6). In general, the social culture places the family at its heart, as the experience of the women in this situation demonstrates, its attitude toward women begins in the more fluid modern world to tear away at this fundamental unit, making the difficulty of mother-daughter bonding a crucial problem for the culture as a whole. The main difference is that Gilman portrays a “happy” family life and a nuclear family while Olsen vividly portrays hardship and life grievances faced by a single working mother. In contrast to Olsen’s character, the woman in Gilman’s story does not suffer from income inequalities and low wages traditionally paid for women. The woman is said that her husband is not able to understand her. She says that “he does not know how much I suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him” (Gilman). On the one hand, the burden is due to the position of women in that society. The other difference is that Gilman’s character becomes mad because of poor treatment and inadequate medical help while Olsen’s mother understands the aimlessness and pointlessness of her life caused by the necessity to work around the clock. In sum, Gilman and Olsen demonstrate that the low social position of women in society deprives wom