What Is The Feminism In The Handmaid's Tale

Similarly in Atwood’s novel, in spite of the fact that Gilead is a dystopian male controlled society, it is the female characters that discriminate their own gender. It is the Wives that knowingly accept that other women, the Handmaids, are treated as sexual and reproductive objects for their personal benefit of obtaining a child. Given that these have the highest social status a woman could achieve in Gilead, they do not intend to oppose the dystopian stipulated dogma. Similarly, another female group that is discriminated by the Wives are the Martha’s, who have the role of being commended domestic tasks given due to their infertility. At the same time, the Aunts, are another group of women who willingly accept the existent discrimination among the female population of Gilead, as they are the

Offred makes reference to her mother in various occasions along the narration, one of the most significant references the narrator makes of her mother is when she says: “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”. (Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale, 1998). Through this quote, Offred emphasises the idea of living in a chauvinistic society to men and remarks that even thought it is not a society where women have the same rights and privileges as men, which was her mother’s objective, it is true that Gilead has a “women’s culture” as they are treated as valuable material possessions and are segregated regarding their usefulness within the society. Furthermore, this quote accentuates the presence of a group of women who revelled against Gilead’s government in favour of women’s social, sexual and reproductive rights. Offred’s mother was part of this group and fought for the rights of the women in Gilead before they were deprived of them. Offred makes various references to her mother’s behaviour and to the way the society criticises this group’s conduct, and the way they were repressed by the