'Women in Jane Austen's novel 'Emma' are consistently undermined by their male superiors.' Discuss.

First, in the introduction, I would suggest that you would have to define the key terms. So for example, which female characters are you going to discuss? You cannot discuss them all to great detail, so pick the ones you have the most critical detail for. What does 'male superiors' mean? The student needs to define this - I would perhaps suggest that this means the male character in which they are compared to, or coupled with. What does being undermined mean? In the last seciton of the intro, I would lay out what I will be discussing in the essay in terms of themes realted to being undermined - in this example, I would choose a few themes to agree with, and also some to counter. So for example, the central character 'Emma' is actually an independent woman, independent of the 'need for a man' that was the typical theme of Victorian literature. Therefore, Emma is actually considered a superior intially, but the student can explore this idea throughout the essay, in relation to both her father (where she could be considered superior, as he is ill and dependent on her for his happiness), whereas differently with Mr Knightley, he is always considered superior, and the voice of realism, therefore always correcting Emma for her actions, in addition to Emma falling in love with him and seeking his approval, suggests an agreement with the question.