Greta Gerwig further establishes herself as one of Hollywood’s most capable filmmakers with Little Women. The movie is based on Louisa May Alcott’s coming of age novel about four sisters growing up in Civil War-era New England. In the film, Gerwig has given new currency and relevance to the 19th-century novel without uprooting its themes or insights into family dynamics.
The publication of Alcott’s novel in 1868 was a sensation in itself. Nineteenth-century America provided few opportunities for women. They could not vote. Personal wealth became the property of husbands at marriage. Husbands even had legal control over their children. Disempowered
