Oppression of Women in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

"Give me children, or else I die. There's more than one meaning to it.” (Atwood, 61). With this quote,
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale contests the stigmatization of women in society. The novel is a
story of how male dominance and leadership have provoked demands for women's rights in society. The
narrative describes how the new Christian administration has restricted women's rights. Offred is the
protagonist of the tale, and she suffers the same kinds of hardships that the other women in the book
do. Over the course of the novel, the author employs a number of flashbacks to fill in the reader on the
activities that led up to the novel's inception. The story's narrator explains the theory behind how the
Christian government restricted women to gender roles in which they had no voice or choice.This
essay’s aim is to relate the oppression of women in the novel to today’s society.
As seen through Offred's eyes, the Gilead Society is a totalitarian regime that has overtaken the United
States. The religious puritanism that gives rise to Gilead's harsh patriarchal culture. The book's
authenticity is what stands out the most. Everything that occurs is true, which may come as a surprise to
some readers; in the prologue, Atwood clarifies that the events she described really did take place
someplace and at some point. Only she could tie everything together. For this reason, "The Handmaid's
Tale" can be classified as both science fiction and speculative fiction. Atwood defines it as works that
explore "latent possibilities," or those that have the potential to become reality but have not yet done
so. When first released in the 1980s, the work was met with skepticism and dismissed as science fiction;
after all, was it feasible for a developed civilization like the United States to dramatically retreat in civil
rights? I am sure many people did not think so.
Everything is feasible now, but protecting and enhancing people's rights is still a difficult and delicate
balancing act. Recent events have shown that, while we do not live in the world of "The Handmaid's
Tale," a society like Gilead is not impossible. We are not living in Gilead yet, but there are Gilead-like
symptoms going on, as Atwood emphasized following Trump's election in 2016. It's true that there are
some eerily accurate parallels between the novel and the world as we know it today. Starting with the
premise that in “The Handmaid’s Tale” women are first and foremost seen as the mothers of society.
Their biological potential to have offspring is used to classify them and identify who they are. Women
who are fertile are handmaids; they are assigned to a couple in whom the lady is sterile and their main
task is to get pregnant and give birth. Their job is to pose as a third party in various relationships. As a
result, birth control and abortion are forbidden so that as many women as possible can have children.
This repressive social structure is related to the international problems with abortion and contraception
that persist in many parts of the world. Some severe cases include Poland's attitude on abortion, while
others include the lack of access to contraception in some areas and the selection of Justice Amy Barrett
in the United States.To be sure, "contraceptive deserts" are regions where women do not have easy
access to a health center that provides a full range of contraceptive options. When women feel
pressured to choose against using contraception, they often do so even though they would benefit from
using such methods. Women's rights discussions have also been sparked by the recent nomination of
Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court. However, she did characterize abortion as "always immoral" and
confirm that "specifics on access and sanctioned limits [on abortion] could alter," suggesting that the
decision might be revisited. So, it makes sense to worry that the advancement of women's rights could
take a step back with her nomination. And it's very unsettling that Barrett replaced Ruth Bader Ginsburg
on the Supreme Court in her absence. Ginsburg was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court and
was often referred to as the "Supreme Courts feminist icon." Now, she will be replaced with a
conservative woman. This next Supreme Court appointment seems like a step backward.