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you welcome back to clique revision we're going to continue pulling out the main themes of an inspector calls now focusing on the role of women and attitudes towards gender in the play we'll look at what life was like for women in the early part of the 20th century how the male and female characters in the play represent different attitudes towards gender roles and why it's important that Eva Smith was a poor woman and not just a poor man as we touched upon in our earlier video on the context of inspector calls the role of women has changed a huge amount since 1912 or even 1945 when the play was first performed and JB Priestley uses this knowledge to make several points about equality in society let's just spend a moment reminding ourselves of the position of women in 1912 by looking at some of the rights women had been afforded in the UK in the years leading up to the year in which the play is set in 1878 only thirty four years before the players set women were allowed to separate from their husbands and claimed custody of their children if they were being abused before this a woman was stuck with a spand unless he agreed a divorced regardless of how horrible he was to her in 1882 the married women's Property Act allowed women to own their own houses for the first time before this all the money and property in a relationship would automatically belong to the husband and when a woman got married she basically had to surrender her individual identity in 1907 just five years before the play the Matrimonial Causes Act ensured maintenance payments for women divorced and separated from their husbands and ensured divorced women and their children would not be left to fall into poverty before this any woman who distanced himself from their husband was at the mercy of the world and pretty much unable to provide for themselves so the life of a British woman was right up until a few years before the plates severely lacking in freedom to a degree that's probably quite difficult to imagine for a young person in the 21st century however in 1912 women were still not afforded nearly all the rights they are today it wasn't until 1918 or 1919 that women would be given a semblance of equal rights the sex disqualification Removal Act of 1919 finally gave women the right to vote stand for Parliament and take on other male-dominated roles however women were not given the opportunity to take on these roles overnight the first female solicitor for example wasn't appointed until 1922 and amazingly nobody was prosecuted in court for discriminating against women until 1966 20 years after JB Priestley wrote an inspector calls furthermore abortion wasn't legal until 1967 leaving any women who wanted to terminate a pregnancy at the mercy of backstreet non professionals usually carrying women from local communities who performed abortions out of goodwill but left themselves open to prosecution for their trouble and abortions involved extremely dangerous procedures often involving a length of wire a bottle of gin and a fall down the stairs meanwhile rape within a marriage wasn't actually made illegal until 1991 so 1912 was a time when women's rights were getting there but they still had a very very long way to go and so the women of an inspector calls find themselves torn between the past and the future we've touched upon how mrs. Birling a representative of the old ways in practically every sense seems happy with her position as a woman because she's wealthy and holds social power in society and how Eva Smith represents the powerless end of the spectrum so she had no power and wasn't happy at all but now we're going to look at the behavior and actions of all the women who are important to inspector calls and examine why their gender is important and what it adds to the many meanings hidden within this puzzle box of a play the opening of an inspector called presents us with three different types of women first we have mrs. Birling who is powerful and rich and who doesn't really feel the effects of discrimination because of this then we have Sheila who is younger and more liberal than her mother and who seems to be entering a relationship out of love fraud and because of any formal arrangement and who throughout the play will show defiance to both her father and fiancee in a way someone of mrs. burling's generation would never have been allowed then finally we have Edna the maid silently and thanklessly clearing up after the burling's and answering the door so they don't have to inconvenience themselves by doing it from the start of the play this creates a spectrum of female gender roles in society which the ghost of Eva Smith will hover over as a comparison for the rest of the play the most obvious act of male dominance at the start of the play is Burling speech it's notable not just because Burling is a boring bloviating old man but also because it's Sheila's special occasion and she really doesn't get to speak very much mrs. Birling being the more senior of the two women seated at the table even answers questions for Sheila before attempting to justify Gerald's previous summer spent avoiding Sheila by telling her daughter when you're married you'll realize that all men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on their business you'll have to get used to that just as I had Sheila's response here I don't believe I will is very important because Priestley is already highlighting the shifting attitudes towards being a woman that would have been displayed by the younger generation indeed there is a clear contrast between old and new attitudes to women's rights a battle illustrated by mrs. Birling and Sheila throughout the play mrs. Birling chastises Sheila's use of modern slang when she calls Eric squiffy saying the things you girls pick up these days Sheila also calls Eric a chump so it's clear that certainly in the way she speaks she is a modern young woman by the standards of the day however it would be a massive oversimplification to suggest that Sheila is entirely modern liberal and progressive in her attitudes as we've established Gerald has chosen her engagement ring for her and she also leaves the room at the end of Burling speech along with her mother because the men are going to smoke cigars and talk about manly stuff that isn't for women's ears and it's important to note that despite her early signs of defiance she is accepting of this and doesn't ask to stay with her fiance despite the fact that splitting the men and women into two rooms effectively brings her engagement party to an early end so that's a bit rubbish for Sheila but it's great for us as flies on the wall because having all the men alone enables us to explore gender politics from the other side of the fence when Eric re-enters the dining room he says I left him talking about clothes again you'd think a girl never had any clothes before she gets married women a potty about him - which Burling never one to miss an opportunity to look authoritative and insightful man's flames what clothes really mean to a woman yes but you've got to remember my boy that clothes means something quite different to a woman not just something to wear and not only something to make him look prettier but well a sort of sign or token of their self-respect as we firmly established by this point that Burling is misguided in all his opinions we can certainly assume that this chauvinistic attitude is deliberate on the part of JB Priestley let's not forget the Burling has an account set up at Mill woods so the women in his family can go and treat themselves at his expense in order to furnish their femininity and bolster their self-respect in the only way they know how with pretty frogs there's a clear divide between men and women here not just physically because they're in different rooms but culturally - to the men women are a mystery to be explored and figured out and this even continues when the inspector enters in every mention of Eva Smith and her suicide inspector ghoul refers to Eva Smith as a young woman and not simply as a person not only does they solicit more sympathy from the audience but it also reinforces the gender divide he even says like a lot of these young women who get into various kinds of trouble she'd used more than one name and considering how liberal minded the inspector seems throughout the play this could be perceived as a bit condescending he says these young women who get into various kinds of trouble as though it's a standard occurrence that young women lack the self determination or the ability to take control of their lives however the inspector is almost certainly playing to his audience here he knows Burling as a man's man a stalwart of the old ways and as a socialist writing in 1945 Priestley clearly wouldn't want to reinforce gender stereotypes as he saw all people as equal regardless of gender age race or background this part of the play also establishes IVA Smith's place in society like Edna as well as most uneducated single women at the time she's a manual worker a cog in the male-dominated machine whose attempts to assert power on behalf of her co-workers is met with a brick wall by the men running the factories in this case mr. Birling and Gerald just look at how they view the concept of women taking care of their own money Gerald says they'd all be broke if I know them in the eyes of these men the women who work in the factory failed to support themselves not because they're underpaid and exploited by the factories they work in but because they need to prioritize buying pretty clothes in order to have any self-esteem it's a deeply condescending attitude towards gender roles and one that would rightfully elicit scorn from any woman in earshot today but these attitudes don't simply extend to factory owners and their female workers remember how nearly everyone's memory of Eva Smith is dominated by physical superficiality the first thing they all remember is that Eva Smith was pretty or good-looking and we can see that their attitudes are indicative of society as a whole between 1912 and 1945 women had plenty of opportunity to prove their worth to the men in society by basically taking over the men's roles throughout both world wars but in 1912 women were viewed very much as window dressing to the men who did all the work so that's the world of 1912 let's look in a little more detail at how this is expressed throughout the play Brumley in 1912 is clearly a world controlled by men otherwise supposedly respected men like alderman mega t wouldn't be safe to spend their evenings sexually assaulting young women in local bars knowing the poor girls in question lack the power to speak up for themselves and this is clearly a double standard indeed when Sheila tries to make herself a part of the conversation between men about the dead girl there's a massive wave of sexism standing in her way Gerald says inspector I think Miss Berlin ought to be excused any more of this questioning not just to cover up his own indiscretions but also because women were seen as a weak species to be protected from the ills of the world Sheila responds in a very modern defiant way to this forced protection saying he means I'm getting hysterical now and this is extremely important today the word hysterical means losing control of emotions and crying uncontrollably but in 1912 it was a medical term and specifically referred to female illness the word hysterical comes from the root histor which means womb in greek and gives us words like hysterectomy when a woman has her womb removed we're not even going to touch upon how male doctors at the age would try to cure hysteria or women's Magnus at the time but do feel free to do an internet search and be shocked by what you discover instead let's look at this exchange between Sheila and Gerald Gerald says that young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things is he genuinely trying to protect Sheila here or just to get her out of the room it really doesn't matter what is important is that Gerald's attitude is indicative of social attitudes towards women as a lesser sex something that Sheila most certainly plays on once Gerald's affair comes to light she sarcastically describes Gerald as the hero of his story and there even seems to be some defense of Gerald's behavior as a god-given male priviledge when mr. Birling says now Sheila I'm not defending him but you must understand that a lot of young men a point at which Sheila really shows how progressive she is by shutting her father down mid-sentence this is a stark contrast to mrs. Burley who sees men and women as having their place in society and clearly judges Eva Smith or mrs. Birling as she's introduced to her on the basis of her being an unmarried pregnant woman concept of the tarnished woman that is a woman who's lost her place in the moral order of society without a man to guide her in the right direction is very important to an inspector calls because not only does it show the attitudes at the time but it justifies the behavior of several characters for a pregnant woman to keep hold of her social status in 1912 it was very important to have the support of a man otherwise they were seen as someone of questionable morals or scruples mrs. Birling directly refers to this idea when she describes Eva Smith as giving herself ridiculous airs and claiming elaborate fine feelings and scruples that was simply absurd in a girl in her position even if Eva Smith could have overcome her initial mistake of calling herself mrs. Birling her status as a lower-class woman compounded by the fact that she was pregnant out of wedlock certainly sealed her fate when mrs. Birling was concerned meanwhile Eric for all the awful things he did including possibly raping a working-class girl who couldn't bring him to account for his actions at least attempted to save Eva Smith's reputation by offering to marry her her response that she didn't love him so as it turns out being a progressive young woman in 1912 was something all women aspired to not just the rich privileged ones like Sheila ultimately Eva Smith was doomed from the start not just because she was poor but because she was female too and that's a very important concept to understand in relation to this play well that was depressing wasn't it let's all be thankful we don't live in 1912 next up we're going to take a look at attitudes towards charity and goodwill in the play however before you move on we recommend answering these practice questions to the best of your ability as usual question 1 how would you describe the position of women in 1912 write five sentences that refer to the social and political landscape of the time and illustrate what you've learned question two what aspects of society in 1912 made life harder for women than it was for men try to refer to specific points in the text to demonstrate your ideas question three is Sheila a modern woman or a woman of her time try to justify your opinions with reference to the text you