Gender Roles In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

The generational difference between women in A Raisin in the Sun

How have gender roles in families and communities changed throughout generations? Gender roles for women have drastically changed throughout the years. Women now and for the last 100 or so years have been able to obtain jobs and stable careers, but that hasn’t always been the case. Women in the 1700s were mostly stay-at-home parents, as a female you were expected to get married, have kids, and take care of those kids. At the time it was rare for women to have jobs let alone a career. In A Raisin in the Sun, gender roles are explored through the different generations of women in the family. In the play, Lorraine Hansberry presents the relationship between Benetha and her boyfriend,

One being her dream of being a doctor to help people, and the other being how she acts and presents herself around her boyfriends. These two things become closely intertwined when her mama expects her to drop her dream of becoming a doctor to marry her boyfriend, George Murchison, “ Get over it? What are you talking about, Ruth? Listen, I'm going to be a doctor. I'm not worried about who I'm going to marry yet if I ever get married” (Hansberry 50). Beneatha’s dream is considered unobtainable by her family as well as the majority of society, as she is a woman of color in the early 1950s, thus reinforcing her mama's opinion that she should give up her dream for George. She expresses to the family that she does not want to marry George and give up becoming a doctor to be a housewife. While she feels strongly about how she wants to live her life she is not a person of confrontation, which holds her back from expressing this to George. This illustrates how the author conveys her dreams for the future and her personality, ultimately showing how her future goals differ from the other women in her

Ruth and Walter have a semi-complicated relationship, as they don’t always agree with each other. This is represented when Walter is unhappy Mama wants to spend the money on a new house, this becomes an argument when Walter tells her “No there ain't no woman! Why do women always think there's a woman somewhere when a man gets restless Do you know what this money means to me? Do you know what this money can do for us? Mama Mama I want so many things” (Hansberry 72). This is one of many things that gives the reader an understanding of their relationship. Ruth believes that while the house would be a good investment for the money, it might not work out in the way Mama believes it will, “Well well 'course I ain't one never been 'fraid of no crackers, mind you but well, wasn't there no other houses nowhere?” (Hansberry 93). This is ultimately showing that while Ruth has hopes for the future and her family similar to Mama, she also takes into consideration to what the long-term effects of her decisions and how they would change her kid's life as they grow