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Notes and summary: social presence of women and men

Short answer

By convention a man's presence rests on the promise of power over others, while a woman's presence expresses her attitude to herself and shows what may be done to her. A woman is taught from childhood to survey herself continually. Even while walking or weeping she cannot avoid seeing herself as others see her.

Read the following passage carefully, make notes and write a summary of it. According to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome, the social presence of a woman is different in kind from that of a man. [passage of about 330 words on how a man's presence depends on the promise of power while a woman's presence expresses her attitude to herself, and how women learn to survey themselves] ... Whilst she is walking across a room or whilst she is weeping at the death of her father, she can scarcely avoid envisaging herself walking or weeping. From earliest childhood she has been taught and persuaded to survey herself continually.

Notes

Title: The social presence of women and men

  1. Difference
    • By custom (now questioned, not overcome) a woman's presence differs in kind from a man's
  2. Man's presence
    • Depends on the promise of power he embodies (moral, physical, temperamental, economic, social, sexual)
    • Directed outward, at what he can do to others
  3. Woman's presence
    • Expresses her own attitude to herself
    • Shows what can and cannot be done to her
    • Shown in gesture, voice, opinions, clothes, surroundings, taste
  4. Self-surveillance
    • Woman must watch herself continually: is always accompanied by an image of herself
    • Even in grief (weeping at father's death) she sees herself weeping
    • Taught from earliest childhood to survey herself

Summary

By long convention, a man's social presence rests on the power he promises to exercise over others, while a woman's presence expresses her attitude to herself and shows what may be done to her. Because her appearance affects how others treat her, a woman is brought up from childhood to watch herself constantly. Even in intimate moments such as walking or mourning, she cannot avoid seeing herself as others see her.

(About 80 words. Written from the passage's opening, its closing lines and its stated theme.)

✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)

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