Women In The Handmaid's Tale

Atwood's focus on sexism shows readers the importance of feminism and equality. For example, on page 72, the author writes, "This week Janine doesn't wait for us to jeer at her. It was my fault, she says. It was my fault. I led them on. I deserved the pain." This quote shows that the women are being conditioned into blaming themselves if something such as sexual assault were to happen to them. It's important because readers should recognize the unjust way of thinking and oppose sexism such as this. Continually, in the novel it says, "Women can't hold property anymore, she said. It's the new law" (178). In the story, when society abruptly changed, women had their rights taken away as displayed in the quote. This illustrates how sexist the society is in the novel and how Atwood believes life would turn out if people were to disregard equality. Finally, the job and treatment of the handmaids throughout the story is very unjust. The handmaids are used for couples who can't have children on their own and must follow strict rules and complete their job or else they face severe consequences. This conveys, yet again, the inhumane way a lot of the women are treated and the wrongs of sexism. Ultimately, this theme of sexism

I know in some places of the world women are oppressed and mistreated, but it’s not like that everywhere. We see this mistreatment in “A Girl in the River” where Saba doesn’t get much of a say in her future, she has no rights and she is forced to do things she doesn’t want. Sadly we can see this mistreatment in the world today, mostly in women, but we can see it in men as well, but we see it more in women because men are those in “power”. We see that men have all the opportunities in the world, but once a woman steps out of line and wants a chance at that greatness, she’s mistreated. A woman doesn’t always have a

For every dollar a man earns, woman only earns 80 cents. Women are raising issue about this injustice in many ways; through rally and other peaceful actions. Even in this era, gender disparity is an issue. Perhaps with the leadership of other individuals this disparity will be erased. It is a bitter truth to admit that injustice is enduring.

Throughout history, women have been treated inferior and have been viewed as less powerful than their counterpart, and therefore were removed from essential societal events because of the harsh and authoritarian treatment placed upon them. In our society, as time progressed most countries began to give women their proper rights, however in the in the novel “A handmaid's tale,” by Margaret Atwood, the audience sees that their version of progression turned out to be counteractive. In a restricted, oppressed society like the one displayed by Atwood, the audience experiences controversial scenarios relating to sexism which limits the characters opportunities, these constraints influence people to take risks when the timing is right in order to create meaning in their life. Overall, the women in “A handmaid's tale,” are taken advantage of, oppressing them further. The assigned roles in their civilization such as the ‘aunts,’ are used as a psychological device to convince the handmaid's that they are lucky, by stating manipulative phrases to persuade the handmaid's into believing that where they are is not a “prison”, but actually a “privilege,” in the hopes of making them accepting of their role as the republics breeding device,

As a reflection to the previous quote we can infer that even today gender norms are unfair, and people who attempt to make them fair are suppressing women instead of introducing them to the same choices men have.

Women have been downgraded and mistreated because of their gender. From birth, Women and Men grew up with very different rules to follow. Men were raised to be the head of the house and do work for a living. Growing up as little girls, women were taught to raise their kids and make food for their families. “Strong family structures were necessary because the family was the basis for all other institutions. The government, church, and community all worked through the nuclear family unit.”(“Gender and

Growing up, women are told that they are equals with men but when find a job in their respective careers they are compensated for the same work very differently. When you hear about this issue most people think about the United States but this problem impacts women all over. Girls that are born in the middle east, aren’t even allowed to go to school. They are denied the opportunity for even a chance at education. In the modern world I find it ridiculous that we have to fight for something so simple as an unbiased opportunity for hourly wage compensation. The business world is for sure changing at this moment in time with the election of our new president. We must stand up now and make sure that we move forward instead of reverting backwards for women’s equality. In order for not only America but the whole world to open their eyes and see how the gender wage gap is such a prevalent issue in the business world we must look at the past see the injustice of inequality, the inability for women in current day to promote themselves, and how this wage gap is stalling the potential of the global economy.

Society tries hard to make the wage gap seem like it does not exist, or that it only exists because of circumstances beyond anyone’s control. When in fact, there is no excuse as to why a woman should ever be paid less than man when they do the same job with the same amount of effort. It would be amazing if this one poster could strike a movement against gender wage discrimination, but it will not. What it will take is for women to take a stand against society so they are taken more seriously in the workplace, thus putting an end to gender wage discrimination so that everyone has the same opportunities to excel in

In The Handmaid's Tale, the oppressive republic that Offred and the other handmaids must live under causes them to lose hope. And through this oppressiveness, their identity ripped from them, which leads to them losing their will to stand firm if they don't yet recognize who they are any longer. An example of this dystopian society is seen when "We learned to lip-read, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each other's mouths. In this way, we exchanged names from bed to bed" (Atwood 4). In the Republic of Gilead, their control over women is so vast and oppressive that their right to speak to each other has been taken away.

In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood sets up the position of women in the society very different than how it is in our society; yet it could also be said that they’re similar. The usefulness of a woman depends on if they’re fertile, their names are taken away and are changed to a label, and their jobs are to service men. The women in Gilead are viewed as no more than physical objects, and the men use dehumanization to keep them in that position. The usefulness and the position of a woman in Gilead is mostly based on if they’re fertile or not.

Being a woman is problematic. Whether you see it or not, discrimination against women occurs daily. People need to be informed on how discrimination occurs in the US, worldwide and in “The Handmaid’s Tale”. Taking a look at how discrimination occurs worldwide, will help us to better understand the topic. There are 195 countries in this world, and discrimination occurs in each one.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is set in a future time period where the United States is under the control of the Gileadean regime. A terrorist attack leads to the collapse of Congress, the suspension of the Constitution, and the establishment of a theocratic totalitarian government. Men and women are given roles within society; they are Commanders, Eyes, Handmaids, and Marthas. In this novel, Atwood explores a prominent social issue, feminism. The suppression and power of women are examined through the setting and characterization of the novel to help understand the meaning of the novel as a whole.

Women in the past were perceived as insignificant because of the society’s inability to embrace and acknowledge women as of equal importance as men and of those who are wealthy. In Margret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, the character by the name of Offred, is a handmaid and tells her perspective of the dystopian life in the community of Gilead. The women of 1985 serve the males and the rich if they are not a wealthy maiden themselves. However, regardless of class, women are always discerned as of lesser significance than men. This is manifested through Offred’s observation that although the women who are a Commander’s wife are entitled of higher authority than the handmaids, they are still seen as insignificant. In order to give them

In today’s news we see many disruptions and inconsistencies in society, and, according to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, humankind might be headed in that direction. The deterioration of society is a concept often explored biologically in novels, but less common, is the effect on everyday social constructs such as the position of women as a item that can be distributed and traded-in for a ‘better’ product. The Handmaid’s Tale elaborates the concept that, as societal discrimination towards women intensifies, gender equality deteriorates and certain aspects of societal freedoms are lost. Offred’s experience with serving Gilead demonstrates a victim’s perspective and shows how the occurring changes develope the Republic.

Gender discrimination is an unfavorable treatment based on gender. It causes the elimination of individual’s right and opportunity (Reeves and Baden, 2000: 2). Gender discrimination usually disadvantages women because women are considered inferior in society. Virginia Woolf states that gender discrimination is a result of the imbalance power between men and women (in Dobie, 2012: 114). Apparently, women have already suffered the discrimination since a long time ago.