when the men first meet the women of Herland. In comparison to the women of their world, the men view the women of Herland to have masculine physical features: having short, functional hair and lacking curves. The women are physically strong and demonstrate this by building huge buildings in their country. Along with the women having masculine traits—as the outside world perceives—Jeff is in some ways feminine despite being a male. Jeff's gender has a conflict of interest with the men he travels with to Herland. Jeff's feelings mirror the women's feelings of Herland rather than the men. At one point, Van feels betrayed by Jeff's emotional responses and agreements paralleled with the women. Another central theme of the novel is motherhood. The all-female society operates chiefly around the child-rearing process. They even developed and modified their language over time in order to make it as simple as possible for the children to learn, education being one of the most important aspects of the culture. Each mother submerges her one child completely with the love and affection of the whole community for the first two years of life until it is taken upon the most equipped few to further their education. One of the male explorers is surprised to hear that the women would give up their children to the care of another, but the women explain that children are taken as the responsibility of the whole community and not just that of the biological mother. The book also focuses on individuality by the way that each child is given her own unique first name with no need of last names. The Herlanders keep a detailed history of their lineage and they see no need to claim ownership over their child by instilling their own name upon that child the way the culture of men is used to. The women are able to love openly without forcing subordination upon others, not excluding their offspring. Jeff is one example of how Gilman represents a feminist voice. As a feminist writer, Gilman provides an additional outlook on women and their roles during her time. She demonstrates her praise of women being independent of men. Gilman creates a means of equality to the men and at times conveys a theme of being superior to the men. In contrast to the world where the men came from, they feel weak compared to the women