Feminism and Femininity

LADY ANTONIA Fraser site in the Harvard Bookstore Cafe, graciously signing copies of her books, sipping white wine and smiling at the long line of admirerers. She sighs as a woman asks her to sign her daughter's copy. "My daughter keeps on writing books. I want her to have a baby." This is the same woman who writes of such heroines as Mary Queen of Scots. But she is quick to point out that she is also a wife and mother.

Like the title of her 14th book, The Weaker Vessel, the irony in her own life is apparent. She comes from a long literary tradition. Her mother, Elizabeth, has written biographies of Queen Victoria, Wellington, Byron and Elizabeth II. Her father, Frank Pakenham, was an Oxford don and inherited his title, the Earl of Longford. Fraser's siblings are novelists and poets.

To complete the portrait, Fraser was married in 1980 to Harold Pinter(her second marriage). Pinter looked ill-at-ease signing a copy of Betrayal in the Harvard Bookstore Cafe. He had eluded the crowds during his wife's appearance in Boston, until he was spotted in a corner. Asked about her, he replied, "I have nothing to say. I'm here escorting her as protector." Not that a woman who combines femininity and feminism needs a protector, but Fraser seems pleased nonetheless.

She is interested in "the woman as heroine." While researching her book on Cromwell, Fraser came across women "who weren't stay-at-home types." Her title is ironic because "the women were admirable and spirited; they beat the system with their gallantry and guts." Unfortunately, the 17th century also marks the beginning of the "rise of the idea of a lady as someone who doesn't do any work."

The Weaker Vessel took 12 years of research, although Fraser had written on British history before. She has penned biographies on James VI, James I and Charles II. Her biography of Mary Queen of Scots won the James Tait Black Prize for Biography in 1969. At Oxford University, Fraser studied history, which taught her "form and structure." Even with her experience in publishing and research, Fraser still found problems in using sources for her latest book. "My ideal source would be a diary of an illiterate woman. You always have to try and find those silent voices. You can't go by the criminal records, where the poor do appear."

The problem of high illiteracy among women in the 17th century concerns Fraser for another reason. "Like everyone interested in women's rights or progress, I believe that education is the key." Although her success as writer and historian no doubt owes much to her own education, she does not consider herself the "exception." She advises women to pursue their goals: "If you want to write, or be a journeyman, don't let anything change your mind. It's true that women need more will to overcome certain obstacles, which is unfair. But a writer, or anyone else, can't be put off by rejection, she can't take it personally, and she's got to believe she's right."

FRASER INDICATES that "the weaker vessel" was indeed a serious misnomer. While Fraser shows the suppression of women throughout history, her purpose is not propaganda.

"This book is, I hope, a historical work, not a tract. After all, to write about woman, it is not necessary to be a woman, merely to have a sense of justice and sympathy; these qualities are not, or should not be the prerogative of one sex."