Hurtston and her women

Hurston tries to portray women accurately for the time period but tries to show the reader something more. Janie, the main character, does’t seem to follow the status quo of how a southern Negro woman was expected to act. Her grandmother, who raised her, was a slave and came from a time before Women’s suffrage and civil rights. When Janie first becomes aware of her body and hormones, her Grandmother wants to marry her off in the hopes that she’ll have a better life. The sad thing is there are still families like this today; third class families that would like to see their daughters married off to Doctors or lawyers and stay housewives.
Janie gets married Logan Killicks an older Negro gentlemen, but one with sixty acres of land. Janie gets upset at the thought of having to marry someone she a) does’t love, b) is older, and c) kind of creeps her out. Her grandmother says to Janie, “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as ah can see.” Janie marries Killicks and moves with him to his spot of land. While Killicks doesn’t treat Janie poorly by hitting her, or making her do everything, he treats her almost more like an equal, or at least like a mule. There is a scene where he asks her basically, “if I chop the wood up could you take it in?” he then tells her that his first wife would chop the wood if it had to be done. So the reader can see that her first husband treats her more like a fellow worker than a feminine woman.
Janie Leaves Killicks for Joe Starks and he promises her that he wants to treat her like a lady. They move to Eatonville, and after the town gets started and Joe becomes Mayor, he starts to treat Janie different, using money as a way to show love, and eventually that to fades. By Joe’s deathbed Janie tells him that all she wanted to do was be his wife but that wasn’t enough; she tells him that there was no room in the relationship for her and his ego.
Then Tea Cake comes along and treats her like a beautiful feminine woman and the whole town is surprised by her actions of independence and her new role as a woman. Tea Cake treats Janie like a woman and has an actual relationship with her. They eventually run off together and everyone in town feels like he’s taking advantage of Janie and that Janie is going to get hurt and come back with nothing. She kind of does, but through her relationship with Tea Cake she experiences what “for better or worse, richer or poorer, and in sickness and in health” means.
I think Hurston is trying to convey that yes there is obviously a difference between men and women, but women can be just as strong and are just as mortal as men can be. She shows that it is important to understand the differences and to try and see women as human beings instead of property, workers, or slaves.