Female Roles in The Word For World Is Forest

One of the things I found most telling about the difference between the Terrans and the Athsheans is the role of their women. Ursula Le Guin seems to be making a social commentary on the human treatment of women in the time period she grew up during because on Terra, women are simply seen as property of males and designed to produce children. Her prime writing years were during major women's rights movements and probably led to the feminist undertones present in the novel. In the Athshean culture, the intelligence and roles of power are split between males and females. Males are responsible for the most powerful dreaming, but the women have all the political prowess and responsibilities. This harsh contrast with the Terran women as breeding objects further exemplifies the advanced sociological nature of the Athsheans. The women of the tribe are also hunters and warriors and seem to align with more ancient tribes of humans in their matriarchal rule. Le Guin, as a fiction writer, is able to create new worlds and fill them with the ideals and values she wishes where prevalent in real life human culture. The stripping of the respect of women through the act of rape is a common theme in The Word For World Is Forest and I find it particularly interesting that the spark to the entire destruction of the Terran colony by Selvar and the rest of the Athsheans was the rape and subsequent killing of his wife by Davidson. A violation of women is the initial reason for introducing violence into Athshean culture.