Marriages Role in Gender Inequality 

By Jamie Ball

      Marriage is practiced in the majority of societies around the world and is uniquely influenced by the culture and ideals of the country in which it is celebrated. Marriage has not always been as favourable for women as it is today. For the better half of history women have been oppressed by society and marriage has played an active part in this oppression. Over recent times the very definition of marriage has changed and adapted to meet the needs and views of a more modern society, but a woman’s role within a marriage has not been so progressive.

        In William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, Kate’s relationship with Petruchio highlights the plight of women in a patriarchal society. Kate is sold off like property by her father, into a marriage where her new husband puts her through many ordeals to break her down and be subjected to him. Portrayed as an independent woman at the beginning of the play, once married Kate’s only purpose, as seen by society, is to serve her new husband Petruchio, as “[t]hy Husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, thy head, thy sovereign” (5.2.158). Patriarchal marriage was a big part of the Elizabethan era because it allowed males to dominate over women. In the opinion of Coppelia Kahn: “Petruchio’s behaviour reflects the psychological realities of marriage in Elizabethan England…Husband’s will constantly, silently, and invisibly, through custom and conformity, suppressed the wife’s” (9:416).

      The idea of patriarchal marriage is reinforced even more through the idea of marriage being about money. The Taming of the Shrew emphasizes the economic aspects of a marriage, such as a means to get rich, improved social status, and increased power. An Elizabethan woman was expected to bring a dowry to the marriage and then once married the law gave her husband full rights over his wife. In the article “The Taming of the Shrew: Shakespeare’s Mirror of Marriage”, Coppelia Kahn says, “Petruchio’s and Tranio/Lucentio’s frequent references to their respective fathers’ wealth and reputations remind us that wealth and reputation pass from father to son, with women as mere accessory to the passing” (91). 

               Over time some society’s patriarchal views have lessened but it has taken until recent decades for progress to truly show. For example, during the early 1900s marriage primarily favoured men as the master of the household. Their role was to go to work while the wife stayed home to take care of their children and do household chores which included cooking and cleaning (Jennings). However, during the Second World War a lack of men in the workforce saw women stepping up and taking on jobs that were historically done by men, such as manufacturing and engineering. This led to a massive increase of women in the workforce and “by the end of the war in 1945, about 37 percent of the workforce was female” (Herger). When the war was over, although many women returned back to their role as a dutiful wife and home maker, many women continued their new careers (Herger). Women have continued to join the workforce, challenging the stereotypical roles that were perpetuated throughout the Elizabethan era and beyond.

       Even though more and more women now work equally alongside men, pay inequality is still a concern. The wage gap between men and women is still vast, with “women earn[ing] 79 cents for every dollar” (Nora). The wage gap is a common topic in modern times, but it has more to do with marriage than the workplace. Most of the gap comes from women taking leave for childbirth and childcare. By leaving the workplace they lose experience and money without proper systems being in place to support mothers who want to have children and a career (Kliff). Men are also often payed more due to being able to work more overtime as they don’t have the same out of work responsibilities like many women do. Quoting an article from CNBC, Sarah Alter highlights: “if men and women were compensated for housework at the average American pay rate of 26.83 an hour, ‘men would earn an extra $469.35 a week, and women would earn an extra $761.69 a week’” (Alter). The fundamental reason for the wage gap has existed since before gender equality in the workforce was seen as an issue, and will continue to perpetuate as long as governments and companies don’t make the efforts necessary to view women and men as equals.

Marriage has come a long way in its treatment of women, but the emphasis on women as caregivers and men as providers is still somewhat present in society today. Women were not encouraged, as they are now, to seek a career or continue their education. A successful marriage entailed male domination and female submission, where a woman was “bound to serve, love, and obey” (5.2.176). Women were not even allowed to choose their husband, as Katherine hears Petruchio point out: “your father hath consented That you shall be my wife; your dowry’ greed on; And will you, nill you, I will marry you” (2.1.64-65).  For most of history, when it comes to marriage, women were viewed as being of a lower status than men. Shakespeare goes out of his way to show how the independent Kate is tamed over the course of the play by Petruchio, echoing the real circumstance of all Elizabethan women, which was that once married, women were left with no legal rights of their own. This is reflected in the domineering Petruchio’s insistence that Kate is his property, “I will be master of what is my own. She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house” (3.2.235-239). This ideal of marriage rippled throughout time, until the fight for gender equality started to be highlighted through women’s rights activists, then the slow change of how society views roles within marriage finally began to remove this idea of the tamed woman.

        Despite a large number of inequalities between genders still being present, marriage is still an important part of a society and its culture today. Even in Elizabethan times when marriage was more about land inheritance and wealth there were, and always will be, marriages that were founded on true love. Lucentio declares his love for Bianca at first sight and professes to his servant that he will waste away if he can’t marry her: “Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio, If I achieve not this young modest girl!” (1.1.155). The progressiveness of marriage today views love as the most important factor in the union of two people and not necessarily referring to a union between a man and woman, but a union of any two people as partners. Woman have the ability to now choose who they want to marry, and what their role looks like in the marriage once they are married. One could argue then that it is not marriage itself then that restricts the plight of women’s gender equality, but rather the modern and historical interpretation that leads to the issues, and as such gender issues can be seen as more of a overall societal issue than an issue specific only to marriage.

           The institution of marriage is definitely still an integral part of a modern society, and is still one of the core traditions in societies all around the world. However, with it’s highly present role it is also a spotlight for gender issues. While we have begun to fix what has affected women over the last century, some of the core ideas within a marriage continue to hinder them to this day. We don’t see marriage in the same way as someone like Petruchio once did but even with a modern perspective we still have a long way to go before we can reach a point of equality.