How Does Suzette Replace The Women In Native Tongue?

Throughout the novel Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin the characters are living in a futuristic world. In this world, women have lost their 19th amendment rights and are living under the control of the men. There is a strict social hierarchy in this advanced society in which the linguist families are seen as superior to the commoners [non-linguist], but one consistent theme throughout the society is the men domineering the women. The women are sitting at the bottom of a ridge hierarchy and it is this that unites them together and the unity felt between the women is used as a tool for fixing the power dynamic. The women of the lines [linguist] are banding together to create a women’s only language that can be taught to the future generations
“And a real waste of time… no, it’s not reserved for linguist women. We are constructing it, because we have the training. But when it’s finished, when it’s ready for us to begin teaching it, then we will offer it to all women- and if they want it, it will be for all women.” (216)

Caroline is explaining to Michaela that all women are welcome to this language not only the linguist. Caroline makes it a point throughout her dialog to show that she does not see the non-linguist women as useless in the project, but rather the linguist are assembling the language because of the education they have in language. Throughout this quote, the invisible wall of linguist and non-linguist is broken and Michaela can be welcomed into the project. The unity felt by the women in this novel expands beyond the social classes. Michaela a non-linguist is being welcomed into this project because the activism being presented by shaping this language will benefit all women. The women in the barren house recognize that Michaela is in the same social situation as them, and this is what makes them able to see past her social
All of these items being hidden were: “smuggled in at terrible risk by underground railroad of sympathetic women from all over the world” (Elgin, 124). This line means that women all over the globe experience this sense of unity and are willing to risk their own lives in order to help one another. By supplying women with abortion tools and contraceptives the women are sticking together in order to have a sense of control over their own bodies. These forbidden items are outlawed, because the male presence in society does not want to allow women to have control over anything, including their own bodies. All of the women in the novel are subject to the demands of the men; if the man wants to have sex it will be done. It is this low ranking social position that is a solidifying factor of the sense of unity. Each of these women understands what it feels like to have unwanted sex or become pregnant with a child they do not wish to have it is this understanding among them that causes them to stick together throughout the