gender roles in the handmaids tale essay

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The Handmaid’s Tale

Margaret atwood.

Gilead is a strictly hierarchical society, with a huge difference between the genders. As soon as the Gileadean revolutionaries take over after terrorism destroys the US government, they fire all women from their jobs and drain their bank accounts, leaving Offred desperate and dependent. Luke , however, doesn’t seem so furious at this turn of events, a subtle suggestion that even good men may have embedded misogynistic attitudes, and that Gilead merely takes these common views to the logical extreme. Soon Gileadean women find all liberties taken from them, from the right to choose their clothes to the right to read.

Even women in positions of power, like Aunt Lydia , are only allowed cattle prods, never guns. The Commander’s Wife , once a powerful supporter of far right-wing religious ideas about how women should stay in the home, now finds herself unhappily trapped in the world she advocated for. Gilead also institutionalizes sexual violence toward women. The Ceremony, where the Commander tries to impregnate Offred, is institutionalized adultery and a kind of rape. Jezebel’s, where Moira works, is a whorehouse for the society’s elite.

Though the story critiques the religious right, it also shows that the feminist left, as exemplified by Offred’s mother , is not the solution, as the radical feminists, too, advocate book burnings, censorship, and violence. The book avoids black-and-white divisions, forcing us to take on our own assumptions regarding gender. We may blame Offred for being too passive, without acknowledging that she’s a product of her society. We may fault the Commander’s Wife for not showing solidarity to her gender and rebelling against Gilead, without understanding that this expectation, since it assumes that gender is the most important trait, is just a milder version of the anti-individual tyranny of Gilead. These complicated questions of blame, as well as the brutal depictions of the oppression of women, earn The Handmaid’s Tale its reputation as a great work of feminist literature.

Gender Roles ThemeTracker

Gender Roles Quotes in The Handmaid’s Tale

Waste not want not. I am not being wasted. Why do I want?

I enjoy the power; power of a dog bone, passive but there.

I avoid looking down at my body, not so much because it’s shameful or immodest but because I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to look at something that determines me so completely.

But maybe boredom is erotic, when women do it, for men.

A thing is valued, she says, only if it is rare and hard to get.

You wanted a women’s culture. Well, now there is one. It isn’t what you meant, but it exists. Be thankful for small mercies.

You can think clearly only with your clothes on.

“Why expect one woman to carry out all the functions necessary to the serene running of a household? It isn’t reasonable or humane. Your daughters will have greater freedom.”

He doesn’t mind this, I thought. He doesn’t mind it at all. Maybe he even likes it. We are not each other’s, anymore. Instead, I am his.

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Gender Roles in “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Atwood

Introduction, the role of a man, the role of a woman, illusionary difference, works cited.

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel illustrating a dystopian system in which fertile women become the maids of couples who cannot conceive. The United States (Gilead) has become a military, patriarchal, autocratic country where all males and females serve a purpose. Males, depending on their status, can form families or work for someone of a higher status. Females are also divided into several categories, including wives and handmaids. Handmaids are to assist the wives, bear children from the head of the houses, and give them away for the families to raise. The prominent theme that is one of the key concepts within the novel is the role each gender has in the dystopian world. Specifically, the gender roles present in the book as similar to the ones that exist now but emphasized and hyperbolized.

While a lot of attention is given to the role of the woman, men are to follow specific gender-based policies as well. It is important to mention that males are given military ranks, such as Commander. Thus, society reinforms the stereotype of males being in power. However, while men are more important than women in Gilead, there is still a hierarchy that either gives privileges or takes them away. For example, Nick, the Commander’s chauffeur, does not have a high enough position to be able to have a family of his own (Atwood 14). If someone’s status is low, that person cannot be issued a woman. Thus, the main goal, which is fatherhood, cannot be achieved. There is not a single male in Gilead who would say no to having kids since this is everyone’s primary purpose and objective (Atwood 227). Based on the circumstances described in the book, men are also oppressed by the existing system and have to follow a set of rules that are not necessarily beneficial for them.

Women have one primary purpose in the Gilead system, which is bearing healthy children. All females have a much lower status than men, even the wives of the commanders. In fact, all the gender roles that are often attributed to women are emphasized and illustrated in the novel. As mentioned prior, women are to have children because otherwise, the unfertile ones are sent to the Colonies. Moreover, only men are allowed to work, read, engage in intellectual discussions, leave the area, and do many other activities females are not allowed to do. However, pregnancy grants privileges that emphasize the only important thing a woman can do in Gilead. Thus, being pregnant means fewer chores and shopping, which is met with excitement by all the handmaids(Atwood 23). However, the children are then given to the wives since they have a higher status and the fathers are their husbands.

A common illusion is that the wives are not oppressed into following strict gender roles, unlike the handmaids. In reality, every female in Gilead does not have the right to an opinion or a voice. An example is Serena Joy, the wife of the Commander. Serena, while having more privileges than June, cannot enjoy her freedom. In regards to privileges, it is certain that Serena’s life is different compared to the lives of the handmaids. For example, wives were never spotted on sidewalks since they would only travel by car (Atwood 21). However, these illusionary privileges were not substantial enough to refer to certain women as free or allowed to have individuality. Specifically, June refers to Serena as someone who became speechless (Atwood 38). Serena was among the protestors who were willing to create a patriarchal society from the very beginning (Atwood 38). Her speeches were supportive of such an autocratic dystopia. It is safe to say Serena thought traditional gender roles were healthy, yet she ended up unhappy with the choice to give up her freedom.

Since fertility is a primary role attributed to women, the fictional country Gilead is based on this particular concept. As mentioned prior, the fact that fewer women were able to bear children was the impulse that contributed to the creation of such an autocratic society. Thus, the whole system revolves around the concept of fertility. However, it becomes something distorted, as in the case of housemaids, they are kept solely for their biological role. Once this role is fulfilled, the biological mother loses her rights and has to give the child away to the family. Such a traumatic experience causes the victims to suffer from physical and emotional distress (Atwood 108). Again, the author portrays a somewhat animalistic hierarchy where women’s fertility is essential, yet only the ones with higher status have the priority to raise the kids. Furthermore, once the female fulfils the ultimate goal, she is to continue to offer her biological functions to men who want to experience fatherhood. The harsh and accentuated similarities between women and simple mechanisms with one purpose and no intrinsic desires and traits directly dehumanize females as individuals.

Another evidence for the theme of explicit gender roles being portrayed all throughout the novel is how society deals with those who rebel against the system. Specifically, this applies to women who chose to express their dissatisfaction, pain and suffering openly. However, open verbal and physical expression are not the only reasons why women can become outcasts in Gilead. This reflects back on the topic of fertility as the primary purpose a woman can fulfil. An example is how the older females are sent to the Colonies because of their inability to bear children (Atwood 197). Both women and men could be punished, sometimes for similar reasons. Women could be killed and hanged on the wall for mistreating the families where they work, disobeying, or planning an escape. Men who were hanged on the wall were first dressed in grey dresses (Atwood 228). This is another portrayal of women as weak and men as humiliated when associated with the other sex. Moreover, such males were disregarded as “gender traitors” (Atwood 228). Thus, the phrase “gender traitor” is one more symbol that suggests the overall topic of gender inequality and discrimination.

Based on the punishments, it is certain that women are being abused in case they have shown disobedience, inability to bear children, a personal opinion that contrasts with the general one, and a desire to change something. Such specific points contrast with the typical female-attributed traits such as obedience, fertility, a lack of ambition, and overall submissiveness. Thus, the opposite of such stereotypical female characteristics is suppressed and punished in the patriarchal society.

The common theme of gender roles is highlighted all throughout the book. The author has created a dystopian world where existing stereotypes are exaggerated and included in a patriarchal structure. Thus, women are either wives or child-bearing maids, and men hold military ranks and have every right to treat females as desired. Both men and women are to follow specific rules and act based on their status. However, the lack of freedom, the inability to openly express emotions, and the oppressiveness of Gilead illustrate the problematic society in which gender roles replace individuality and personality.

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale . McClelland and Stewart, 1985.

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Feminism in “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood Essay

Introduction, the oppression, works cited.

The handmaid’s tale is a dystopia that builds upon the dystopian imagery of feminist texts from 1970s. Atwood’s novel was written in direct reaction to the growing political power of the American religious right in the 1980s (Atwood). It projects a nightmare future in which rightwing religious extremists have established control of the government of what was once the United States but has now been transformed into the theocratic Republic of Gilead.

The thesis of this paper is based on three aspects. First is the imposition that women who have virtually no rights and are treated essentially as chattels. The second thesis is based on the role of religion in the society. Religion in Gilead is the similar to that of the current American society especially, the aspect of ambiguity which has been predominant with regard to the rightful application of religious beliefs and principles.

Lastly, language is a powerful tool with regard to formulating of ideologies and addressing issues. This book captures the implications of language with regard to addressing the pitfalls that face the people of Gilead. Similarly, this is the case with the American society where language has been used as an avenue to woo voters and address social issues.

Yet the brutal treatment of women in Gilead, however extreme, clearly serves as an extrapolation of patriarchal conditions that have long prevailed in uptown world and that many say as worsening during the Reagan administration of the 1980s – and that many have seen as worsening again during the Bush administration of the early twenty first century.

The Handmaid’s Tale is presented as the secret journal of Offred, beginning with her training for a life of sexual servitude as a “handmaid” in the republic of Gilead. Handmaid, we learn, are assigned to important men in Gilead whose wives have proved unable to bear children, so that those men might still have an opportunity to procreate (Wisker).

Procreation is, in fact, highly problematic in this society, where deteriorating environmental conditions have rendered most women sterile. Most men may be sterile as well, though in Gilead male infertility is officially non – existent, and the infertility of a couple is always attributed to the woman. The officials of Gilead have declared artificial insemination or any other technological intervention in the process of fertilization to be unnatural.

As a result, the handmaids are to be impregnated by ordinary sexual intercourse, though this intercourse occurs as part of a highly ritualized ceremony that is anything but natural: the wife looks on while the husband and handmaid have sex in a manner designed to remove all semblance of sexual pleasure, at least for the handmaid, though one suspects that the husband may take a preserve delight in imposing his power on a subjugated woman (Wisker).

In this book, religion is used as an aspect which is to enhance the fear of God. This is owing to the fact that when one goes against God, there is the likelihood of punishment. This gives a reflection of how things are in the current society.

The fear of God has been used to discourage people off the perceived evils which are going on in the society. Some of the illustrations in this book have been borrowed from the book of Genesis, for instance, the case where Rachael insists that her husband Jacob sleeps with the handmaid to conceive. This is a major biblical theme which is pronounced in this book.

Essentially, Atwood depicts how ambiguous the fundamentalists are using the bible to describe or to discuss the social on goings within Gilead. As the case is, currently, we are living in a society where there is a lot of ambiguity with regard to religion. People are using biblical explanations to justify their life styles in an age where there are no clear cut boundaries about what ought to be followed and what ought not to be.

There is an aura of hypocrisy which has bedeviled the society then as it is the case in the current society. This has been illustrated in the case where women’s role is defined as child bearing, as described in Atwood’s book, “Adam was not deceived, but the women being deceived was in transgression ” (Chapter 34, pp 221).

In Atwood’s dystopian Handmaid’s Tale, the power of language is equally evident. Women in the republic of Gilead are not permitted to read. (Judd, one of the architects of the Republic, is credited with saying, “Our big mistake was teaching them to read. We won’t do that again” [p. 307]).

The shops are known by their pictorial signs alone, women are expected to keep silent or to utter only approved phrases, and playing scrabble with a woman is indecent. Yet the rebels use a system of manual signs, a silent language to communicate. And the Handmaid finds her closet message in Latin scratched there by the previous, now dead, Handmaid.

This brings to the core the power of using language to shape ideologies. Essentially, the current American society has grappled with this concept.

Individual women, whether they are struggling with discrimination in the workplace, abuse in the home, everyday sexual harassment, the aftereffect of rape, or any of the other isolating conditions so common in patriarchy, can begin to reduce their resulting Societal Stockholm Syndrome by claiming language as their own.

This book indicates the subversive potential of language, not only reminding us how language has been and is used to alienate women from our experience but also inviting us to consider the everyday audacity of private and public language use as a form of mental liberation.

Atwood focuses on women and sexuality as principal targets of the religious totarianism of the Republic of Gilead. In this Christian theocracy, marriage is promoted as a social goal, though it is only available to those who have reached a certain social status. Indeed, wives, while they enjoy higher status than handmaids, are literally “issued” to successful males as rewards for loyal service to the community.

In addition, women in this society exist not as individuals but as members of well defined groups, corresponding almost to brand names (Wisker). Among the upper classes, women function principally either as wives (who serve as domestic managers), domestic servants or handmaids. In the lower classes, however, “Econowives” have to play all of these roles.

There are also “Aunts” who serve to train and discipline the handmaid and “Jezebels” who are officially though covertly, sanctioned prostitutes used to service foreign dignitaries and important government officials. Women who cannot or will not play one of these roles are labeled “Unwomen” and are exiled to the “colonies,” where they are used for hazardous duties like cleaning up toxic waste, much of the American landscape having been polluted to the point of being inhabitable.

It is worth noting that in this novel, we have a woman protagonist, Offred, with whom we sympathize, as readers, and who invites us to share her perceptions of events and disempowerment in Gilead, a republic controlled entirely by male power or patriarchy and based on the value of reproductive capability. Essentially, women are initially of high value but refused the opportunity to read and make their own decisions, make choices of how to live and who live with and are unable to own their own possessions and move.

This novel has clearly brought out issues which deal with representation of women’s roles, constraints, gender, sexuality and power, the management and control of reproductive rights, feminist themes, issues and reading practices (Wisker). In literary terms, it is also interesting to consider how and if women might write differently from men, other than treating different issues or similar issues differently and this leads us to thinking about the use of language and imagery.

The outlook for women in this possible future which has been offered in this book is indeed miserable, reduced to bodily functions and roles of handmaids, wives, or housemaids doing chores in the formal household system, or in the proletariat outside, as econowives.

In this critique of reproductive technologies and a dehumanizing control over women’s power and individuality Atwood imagines a future which has reversed all the equalities and achievements of the twentieth century. These include the achievements of the suffrage movement. Women in the novel are reduced to back to being owned by men rather than being able to own property, their own bodies and futures. In chapter 28 the turning point is seen.

This is a powerful moment and a shocking chapter. Offred and her husband Luke, along with their daughter, are living an ordinary life when, in the course of the week the president is shot, the constitution revoked, and armed bodies of Special Forces – troops of some sort – patrol the streets and control everyone’s actions. This position in the future is contrasted with the moments of equality, hard earned in the 1980s, and the beliefs, actions and visions of feminists in that period.

In conclusion, reading the novel in the twenty first century we can have a more distanced perspective on the views of 1980s feminism, on the kind of outcomes they would never have sought, and on the ways in which (while they have many rights in the western and parts of the Eastern world) they are frequently reduced to state disempowerment under extreme or fundamentalist regimes.

Atwood, Margaret. The handmaid’s tale. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1986. Print. Wisker, Gina. Atwood’s the Handmaid’s Tale. Chennai: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010. Print.

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IvyPanda. (2018, October 31). Feminism in "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-handmaids-tale/

"Feminism in "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood." IvyPanda , 31 Oct. 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/the-handmaids-tale/.

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IvyPanda . 2018. "Feminism in "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood." October 31, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-handmaids-tale/.

1. IvyPanda . "Feminism in "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood." October 31, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-handmaids-tale/.

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Gender Roles in “A Handmaids Tale” by Margaret Atwood

How it works

The concept of gender is one that has been a heated topic for many years. There are many different theories on what gender is, and how it should be used and treated in society. Judith Butler argues in her piece Performative Acts and Gender Constitution that gender is not something that one is born with, but it is instead a performance. She writes about the importance of identity, and the divide between sex, gender, and race. While many believe gender is determined as a biological attribute to a person, Butler believes otherwise.

A text that accurately depicts Butler’s theory of gender as a performance is Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which is a novel surrounding a dystopian, anti-feminist society. Set in a backwards American society, where oppression has been restored, and the government has taken complete control, the story follows a female character named Offred, who has to adapt to societies new (yet old) reality. There is an overwhelming sense of essentialism in the novel in regards to women’s roles, and highlights key points referred in Judith Butler’s theory of gender as a performance. Judith Butler argues that sex and gender are socially constructed, and that they are something that is performed in society and something that one will become, not something they already are. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood emphasizes Butler’s theory through the character of Offred and her experience with the role of female gender in a dystopian society.

Judith Butler is one of the most well known writers on feminist theory, and in her piece Performative Act and Gender Constitution, she formed a theory of gender that is well known and referenced all over feminist movements. She argues around a centralized concept that your gender is constructed through repetitive acts, or performances, and that gender is not something that you are born being. They are a stylized repetition of acts that is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo (Butler 520). Although she believes in this theory, society has created a status quo of gender, one that is constrained by historical conventions (Butler 521). History and time has created a script, according to Butler, that is expected to be followed from birth. Although these social expectations are expected to be followed, she states that many people who are following said script, one that is distinguished by their biological sex, are not even aware they are doing so. She argues that sex is also assumed based off of gender. She writes that many feminists theorists, such as herself, disagree with the explanation that sex dictates social expectations from a women. In Ingrid Robeyns When will Society be Gender Just? she too defines gender as social positions that men and women occupy because of certain bodily features that reveal her reproductive capacities (Robeyns). A person’s bodily features, she says, are used as markers to determine a man and a women, and thus also justifying their social positions (Robeyns). These premade roles that are set out for them are so solidified into history that it is expected to be something they are instead of something they become. It is expected in society for biologically born women to display feminine traits, such as painting their nails, doing their makeup, wearing dresses, etc. It even goes as far as the expectation of bearing and caring for children. Men are also expected to follow their roles, as being strong and dominant, and being the monetary caretaker for the family. Butler writes that these roles are a strategy of survival, and that Discrete genders are part of what ‘humanizes’ individuals within a contemporary culture; indeed, those who fail to do their gender rights are regularly punished (522). The fear of society’s disapproval is part of what has created this monster of gender expectations.

Although tying gender in as a performative act, Butler understands the difference between theatre and gender. There is no role in gender that can be differentiated from the self. An actor has the ability to step out of their role, back into reality. The performance of gender does not give the same ability. In theatre, one is able to maintain a sense of reality in the face of this temporary challenge to our existing ontological assumptions about gender arrangements (Butler 527). Being able to say this is only a play allows a separation between performance and real life. When in society, though, there is no set conventions that distinguish the two, providing a dangerous situation for those who decided to step out of the normal performance of their expected gender roles. Our bodies are inscribed with heterosexuality as something that must be performed from the beginning of life, and the performance should be acted throughout society by every man and women. When the act of heterosexuality is broken, the history and sedimentation of societies normal gender roles are broken, thus creating a negative reaction. An example of this, referenced in Robeyn’s article, is the power imbalance between the gender performance of men and women. She writes:

The femininity norms make it much harder for women than men to gain power. As Pierre Bourdieu put it, ‘access to power of any kind places women in a double bind: if they behave like men, they risk losing the obligatory attributes of femininity and call into question the natural right of men to the positions of power.’ Whereas empirical studies show that both men and women are socially punished if they violate their respective gender norms, conforming to these norms leads to gendered behavior that puts women in structurally weaker positions than men (Robeyn 4).

Because of society’s expectations of gender, any small change in the usual performance leads to a huge imbalance. The concept of power is an important example of this, where men are expected to hold most of societies power, while women are expected to do the same in the home. If those positions are altered, or even switched, that creates social disapproval, and throws off the societies balance as a whole.

Butler argues that although this may be the case due to the layers of historical expectations for gender performance, that gender should not be referred to as something fixed and binary, but instead should be referenced as fluid, constructed, and performed. Society and its expectation of gender as a uniform act creates a compelling illusion of gender being part of human nature. This system is preserved in society because of its cultivation of bodies into discrete sexes and the reassurance that there is an essentialism of gender identity (Butler 524-528). Butler wants it to be known that gender and sex does not have to correlate, and that it is in fact possible to choose the traits of your own individualized gender. Although, unfortunately, society may have something to say about this. Even though womens suppression has become less and less every year, there are still expectations from women, such as bearing children and doing the household chores, that are still a part of society’s outlook on gender. Butler believes, though, that with enough break in the sedimented performances of gender, that it is possible to present your gender in whichever way you would like to. Although these preliminary gender roles have been acted out throughout the beginning of time, today’s society is beginning to follow Butler’s theory of gender as a performance. Many people are beginning to break out of their roles, and be someone that they want to be, without a label of gender. Although some are becoming successful at doing so, sex and gender is still a performative act that is hard to be broken.

The dystopian society of Gilead in A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a prime example of women’s oppression and the effects gender roles have on a society.

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