Katherine Mansfield belongs to a group of female authors who used their financial resources and social position to criticize the patriarchal status quo. Like Virginia Woolf, Mansfield was sufficiently socioeconomically privileged to write influential texts that were considered "proto-feminist" before the early feminist movements. The Progressive Era in which Mansfield writes proves particularly problematic because, "while the modernist tradition generally undermined middle-class values, women...did not have the recognized rights necessary to fully embrace [its] liberation." values” (Martin 69). Her short stories emphasized particular facets of female oppression, ranging from social inequality between the sexes to economic classism, and it is evident that "[poor or rich, single or married, Mansfield's female characters are all victims of their society” (Aihong 101). . Mansfield's short stories, "The Garden Party" and "Miss Brill," represent the feminist struggle to identify traditional patriarchy as a caste system inherent in modernity. This notion is exemplified by the social bonds created by women, the naive innocence associated with the upper classes, and the deliberate dehumanization of women through oppressive patriarchal methods. In examining the female characters in “The Garden Party” and “Miss Brill,” it is evident that their relationships with other characters and with themselves inform the reader of their enculturated classist preconceptions, which it is useful to analyze before to discuss the sources of oppression. and the internal dialogue is representative of the enculturation process to which Laura and Miss Brill were exposed. Mansfield's two short stories represent a binary: Laura's achievements of...... middle of paper ....... Print.Day, Thomas. “The Politics of Voice in Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party.” » English 60.229. (2011): 128-141. Print.Mandel, Miriam B. “Reductive Imagery in “Miss Brill.” » Studies in Short Fiction 26.4 (1989): 473-77. Print. Mansfield, Katherine. “Miss Brill.” The twentieth century and beyond. Ed. Black, Joseph et al. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2006. 439-441. PrintMansfield, Katherine. “The Garden Party”. The twentieth century and beyond. Ed. Black, Joseph et al. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2006. 432-439. Print.Martin, W. Todd. "Why don't I have a real house?" »: DividedSelf by Katherine Mansfield. New Zealand Journal: JNZL 31 (2013): 66-83. Print.Moran, Patricia. “Unholy Meanings: Motherhood, Creativity, and Orality in Katherine Mansfield.” » Feminist Studies 17.1 (1991): 105-125. Print.