The Downstairs Girl

One of the most emphatic points the narrative makes is that sexism is experienced differently by different groups of women. The novel exposes a variety of factors—such as economic or social class, as well as racial identity—that can further complicate the lives of marginalized groups like women. Throughout the novel, it is emphasized that true social and political change depends on recognizing and uplifting all women equally.

For upper-class white women like Mrs. Payne, the experience of sexism involves a narrowing of choices and a hardening of roles. Mrs. Payne has to choose between a life on the margins of society and living in a golden cage. In her golden cage, she appears to stay in a loveless arranged marriage. She has to give up a daughter and live a life of pretense. Yet her experience is very different from that of a poor white woman without male backing, such as the likes of Madame Delilah, the madam at Riggs’s brothel. Women without money and patronage are often forced into dangerous or dubious positions in Mrs. Payne’s society.

However, even the experiences of such women are different from the experience of Chinese American Jo, who is routinely gawked at for her Chinese features, fired from a job because of racial bias, and called racist slurs.