Do the females in "Her First Ball," "The Little Governess" and "The Garden Party," by Katherine Mansfield, have a sense of power in comparison to men?

This is an interesting question to consider. Generally,
Mansfield is famed for the way in which she depicts the powerless position of women in a
patriarchal society, and so this would suggest that the female protagonists of these
stories do not exercise power over men.

"The Little
Governess" could be used as an example of this. Note the way in which the governess
finds herself dependent upon the strange German who shares a carriage with her. In
addition, the power that this man has over her is clearly indicated by the kiss that he
gives her against her will:

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She sprang up but he was too quick and he held
her against the wall, pressed against her his hard old body and his twitching knee, and
though she shook her head from side to side, distracted, kissed her on the
mouth.

The governess is
therefore shown to occupy no power over men whatsoever. The physical way in which she is
overpowered only serves to underline her general position of weakness and
powerlessness.

As for Laura in "The Garden Party," although
the story is on the whole absent of male characters, the dead Mr. Scott, when she goes
to visit his corpse and pay her respects, seems to exert a particular power over her. It
is through looking at his peaceful nature that Laura experiences an epiphany about her
life and the garden party:

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He was given up to dream. What did garden parties
and baskets and lace frocks matter to him? He was far from all those things. He was
wonderful, beautiful. While they were laughing and while the band was plahying, this
marvel had come to the
lane.

Thus, although Laura
occupies a higher social class than the Scotts, she is still shown to learn something
from the dead Mr. Scott.

Lastly, Leila in "Her First Ball"
arguably could be the one female character that shows her power over men through the way
in which she is able to forget the fat man's remarks and carry on enjoying her first
ball in spite of the threat of mortality. Although initially she is greatly impacted by
his words and thoroughly depressed, wanting to go home, as the next dance starts and she
begins to whirl around the room, she completely puts the fat man out of her head and
therefore shows her power over him. Note how she responds when she sees him
again:

And
when her next partner bumped her into the fat man and he said, "Perdon," she smiled at
him more radiantly than ever. She didn't even recognise him
again.

Although initially
this fat man is shown to have power over her by the way in which his words upset Leila,
she quickly exerts her own power by forgetting him and his
speech.