How Does Atwood Present The Feminism In The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s tale raises questions and presents the issues regarding feminism in society. Feminism is essentially the idea that there is to be equality between both sexes and has a primary focus on giving women more rights and freedoms to make women equal to men in society and is presented in the Handmaid’s Tale through an alternative lens: Gilead is a male-dominated society that challenges the presence of feminism. The Handmaid’s tale is set in a dystopian society that was previously the USA, where the previous society was rid of and became an entirely male-dominated society where the only purpose of women is to serve these men who rule. The novel, The Handmaid’s tale is a strong feminist text because although it challenges

Handmaids in the novel are no longer referred to as their name but referred in relation to their commander: for example, Offred is called Offred because she is ‘of Fred’ who is her commander. Atwood manipulates the names of the handmaids to infer that women are no longer their own person and have their own identity, but are instead identified as objects of the men who essentially own them like they are their own property. Atwood also juxtaposes the role of handmaids who conform to the demands of the leaders of Gilead and become child-making machines, with those of feminists in Gilead who fight for equality which undermine the traditional patriarchal values and ideas of the leaders. Feminists in the novel such as Offred’s friend Moira are treated lesser than other women and are known as “unwomen” who are frowned upon in society despite genuinely desiring gender equality. People who are “unwomen” receive punishment for not submitting to the gender expectations of women in Gilead. This aligns again with the ideas of Simone de Beauvoir where she states that “women internalise the consciousness of the male gaze and the expectations of gender roles.” This highlights how the women in Gilead who were not ‘unwomen’ would submit to the men and conform to their gender roles as either an Aunt who watched over handmaids, a handmaid who would bear children for infertile couples, or a Martha, who would work as a housemaid/servant. When this theory is applied to the Handmaid’s tale, it is evident that to a certain extent the women in Gilead perpetuate the imbalance of gender equality by passively complying with the Gilead authority and by not fighting back like the feminists in the novel. This is similar to how modern feminists in society where they are scrutinised and people have a