“The Reasonable Woman Standard,” by Ellen Goodman, although one-sided, was one of the most amusing and entertaining articles that I have ever read. In this article, Goodman theorizes that even though women are finally “speaking out” against sexual harassment in the workplace, women still have a long way to go until men begin to view sexual harassment through a [reasonable] woman’s eyes. She reasons that until men are able to put themselves into a woman’s shoes, sexual harassment in the workplace will continue to be a problem. “The Reasonable Woman Standard” originally appeared in the Boston Globe in October of 1991 and was reprinted in a textbook called Current Issues and Enduring Questions by Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau. In this essay, Ellen was able to use her fabulous sense of wit, though sometimes brutally honest and a little too wicked, to express to the people of America that there are still some major problems with sexual harassment occurring in the workplace today. This essay was written in a way that was patronizing or even condescending towards men. In a woman’s eyes the article could be effective, but it would appear to be biased in the eyes of a man. In the case of this essay, if a man’s opinion is the one that Ellen is trying to change, then maybe her piece is not effective after all.
Just from reading, “The Reasonable Woman Standard,” this piece gets you thinking. “What is a reasonable woman standard?” is one of first questions that comes to mind. According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, the definition of reasonable would be the ability to possess sound judgment. The assumption that we would then draw from the title is that a reasonable woman standard is a standard that is based on the sound judgment of a woman. “What type of standard would be based on the sound judgment of a woman?” would then be the next logical question. And that is the type of question that would prompt the reader to read further.
Ellen opened her piece...