What issues is Katherine Mansfield presenting about women in her short stories?

The issues focused on in the short fiction of Katherine
Mansfield seem to try to explore and depict the various challenges facing women in her
context. In particular, the position of women in a patriarchal world is examined, as
women have to operate within a man's world. Shorter stories such as "The Bay" and "The
Prelude" explore how women set up the domestic sphere as "their" territory, with men
feeling uncomfortable and powerless in it. In addition, stories such as "The Garden
Party" and "The Doll's House" examine New Zealand society and the ubiquitous presence of
class and how it impacts women of all different positions in
society.

You might like to focus on the way that in some of
her short stories Mansfield presents women as being weak, powerless, isolated and
dependent. In particular, "Miss Brill" explores the psyche of a woman who is desperate
to convince herself she is significant but at the end of the story is forced to
acknowledge the emptiness of her life. Likewise, "The Little Governess" explores the
position of dependency of a woman abroad the first time and thus extremely vulnerable to
the abuse of an old man.

Another aspect that her fiction
seems to capture is the various epiphanies experienced by women. "The Garden Party" and
"Her First Ball" are good examples of this type of fiction, where Laura in the former
looks upon the dead body of Mr. Scott and suddenly realises how frivolous her life is,
and Leila in the latter is faced with the ephemeral nature of her beauty and
youth.