womanly power

The power wielded by the women in this novel is pretty surprising, and not just their power over each other, but over the male characters, most notably Laurie. One instance of this is the promise that he has to make at Meg's wedding to stop drinking, even the little that he does (a rather ironic promise seeing as how he witnessed Meg's drunkenness at the Moffat's three years earlier). This is pretty relevant to the prohibition talking that was going on at this time, and was a common realm for the women to exert power over. Also, even though Papa has returned he seems not to exert much influence in the house over child rearing or house management except to hold his girls accountable to a standard. Jo's child rearing in New York and her influence through the sentimental stories are yet more examples of ways that women exert power in their own way, though the story writing is not quite so womanly and appropriate a thing.
Amy seems to be growing up into quite the social butterfly, gifted with grace and elegance and the suchlike, and she is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to the social women's sphere, as we see at the fair. She is only able to pull it off the coupe with Laurie's help, but womanly influence is used to get that help so it's still a victory for her femininity.
We get a sense of being cheated when Jo talks about refusing Laurie's proposal. I mean, they seem like such a perfect storybook couple! It always makes me sigh, but it's meant as an example of a woman using her one major choice in life to make sure that the home she creates is a happy one I guess. It's the correct alternative to the Moffat's planning for the future by marrying their daughters off to rich men. I think that's one of the reasons that Jo's falling in love with the professor (which everyone sees but her) is not an experience that we feel betrayed by. It is also really appropriate that the masculine Jo falls for the man who loves children, the feminine domain.
One last thing, what is it with the Marches and German? How is that a romantic sexy language? Brooke wins Meg at Camp Laurence with German poetry and Fritz wins Jo with German lessons. I guess German was a more romantic language before the world wars.