Male Chauvinist Lions: Sex Discrimination in Tolkien and C.S. Lewis

Part 2

Abstract

Limiting herself to the “Chronicles of Narnia”, Kemball-Cook attempts to figure out if the way C.S. Lewis wrote women, and particularly the children, of his stories in a sexist or misogynistic way. There are a lot of women in Lewis’s books, so there is more evidence to examine. He seemed to prefer women heroes to male heroes in his writings. She examines the rest of his writings, finding that Lewis prefers women who can develop their own ideas and think for themselves. She concludes that, like Tolkien, Lewis is not sexist - though they fall into the “maintaining historical accuracy” with the added benefit of strong women being able to fulfill great deeds and find their destiny, but creating children is still their greatest act.