Historically women have been considered intellectually inferior to men and also a source of temptation and evil. Women have also been considered naturally weaker than men, squeamish, and unable to perform work requiring muscular or intellectual development. In most early societies, and up until fairly recently, domestic chores were relegated to women, leaving heavier labor such as hunting, plowing, and careers outside of the home to men. Maternity was considered the natural biological role of the woman, and it has also been highly regarded as her social role as well. Young girls learned from their mother's example that cooking, cleaning, and caring for children was the behavior expected of her when she grew up. Formal education for girls was, historically, second to that of boys. In colonial America, girls were taught to read and write at dame schools but they could only attend the school with the boys when there was enough room. The views of women are present all throughout history in the writings of the times. Katherine Anne Porter, an important American author, was born in Texas in 1890. She spent all of her early life in Texas and Louisiana. Her mother died when she was two and she was raised, in poverty, by her paternal grandmother and father. She was educated in convent schools. She was brought up in a region where a woman's femininity defined her. The idea of the southern belle was prevalent in her childhood. Porter defied these ideals by first becoming a journalist, and then becoming a fiction writer who was neither a feminist, nor feminine. Some of Porter's beliefs and experiences are seen in her writings. She was known mostly for her short stories and her one novel. In 1930 Porter's first book was published, Flowering Judas and Other Stories. This work contains the story "Old Mortality." In the 1930's Katherine Anne Porter wrote "Old Mortality." At first reading, this is a story of two children growing up ...
