"All's Well That Ends Well & Gender Constraints in the Workplace"

 Helen in Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well is a strong, intelligent, and goal-oriented woman. In order to get the man that she loves and move up the ranks in society, she is willing to do whatever it takes. In the beginning of the play we get the King of France that is dying of a fistula, and all the male physicians can’t seem to find a cure for him. Helen, the late daughter of a doctor, and taken in by Bertram’s mother, is able to gain an audience with the king to deliver a cure in exchange for the means to marry whomever she wishes. What is hard core about Helen is that she is willing to sacrifice her life, if the cure does not work, and that she is unapologetic in her abilities to obtain her goals. This of course, our “dear” Bertram has a serious problem with. What I found interesting is the exchange between Helen and the King when she is trying to convince him to accept her father’s cure. One would think that the King would be up for anything in order to live, but this is not the case. The King blatantly admits that her credibility as a physician is considerably less to non-existent due to her gender. When Lafeu enters and addresses the King, he notifies him that there is someone there that can cure him, it is the king that automatically assumes that the physician is male.

            This kind of sentiment is nothing new. Since the nineteenth century women have been fighting for the rights of women, and the destruction of female gender constraints.  Gender inequality in the workplace has been a long struggle for women trying to break into a male dominated arena. This is especially true in the field of medicine. “The entrance of women into American medical practice during the mid-nineteenth century was a direct outgrowth of the social reform movements that characterized the period.” – http://www.hws.edu  the early female physicians faced many struggles in order to achieve success and acceptance. This is still a problem for women and the LGBTQA in the workplace. Females in male dominated professions still make less money on the dollar to their male counterparts, and members of the LGBTQA are harassed in the workplace, and denied jobs based on their sexuality. This is evident in All’s Well That Ends Well. In 2.1 of the play Lafeu has to remark on Helen’s qualifications and credibility, and makes it seem like a major accomplishment considering that she is female. “With one that in her sex, her years, profession.” (2215) Even though Helen is not a physician herself, she is obviously intelligent enough to interpret her father’s work, and deliver a cure to the king. The king tells Helen that he is not going to put his trust in her ability when all the male doctors before her that are among the Assembled College of Physicians (2215) have declared that medicine cannot beat nature, and that he fully expects her to fail (2216). Helen hearing this tells the King that she is willing to put her life on the line, and offers up her price for healing him.  If it had been another male who had offered a cure to the King and the price would have been a wife, and not a husband, it is Bertram that would have received no resistance, and Helen would have submitted to being a prize against her wishes.