Good and Bad of Being Social Outcasts

Janis Karpinski spent six years in Arabia, being an observational military officer. As a woman, she was very interested in seeing how life differed from her life in the U.S. Janis had a preconceived idea about how women had basically no rights compared to all of the freedom that women here in the states do, just never witnessed it personally or saw what went on. She was in disbelief when she saw how women were actually almost shunned from society when they didn’t marry when they should be, and how no one wants them or wants anything to do with them. In the next quotation, she explain that, “Women in these poor emirates- and across the country, so some extent- were disproportionately worse off, especially if they were still single past the prime marrying age of fourteen to eighteen. Not every single woman in her twenties was considered a loser; in some cases, parents were too liberal to push their daughters out the door or too wealthy to need a dowry from a husband’s family. But many young, single women were indeed social cripples. They had failed to snare a husband, or they had been divorced and sent back to their families, sometimes with children to support. And on their own, they looked forward to a life of

dismal prospects.”(126)

The impressive part about these women who are treated so badly turn out to be very successful women. Because they do not marry and have children, they make their lives so much better. Becoming successful women in society, but “These hard-luck, unmarried women were often educated. Many had college degrees. They were qualified to work in banks, schools, hospitals, and offices. But they frequently faced hopeless discrimination.” (126) These women are great role models to other women, beacsue they show that when they are not married they can make a good life for themselves.