In the 1930s, many key things were happening; women had just won the right to vote, and the Great Depression had just hit, for example. Despite the achievements of women and the opportunities they had created, it didn’t largely change the way they were viewed. In Of Mice and Men, the language the characters use to describe women is very oppressive. Women are only seen as possessions, seductresses, or caretakers of men. They often talk about how they go to the whorehouse for pleasure and a break from reality.
In the 1930s, women’s equality was a taboo topic, rarely discussed. Many women were unemployed housewives, as those were society’s standards. However, that was all due to change as the Great Depression took place. Many men had lost their jobs because of the crash, so their wives would take it upon themselves to find a job. The most common of these were being a teacher, nurse, beautician, cleaner, cook etc – ones that society thought women could handle. In most cases, women were doing work at wages most men would not accept. In addition to the low wages and poor working conditions that women were subjected to, they also faced social criticism as many people believed that they were taking their jobs away from men. Due to these harsh conditions, a lot of women then turned to prostitution as it was their only way of making money.
Throughout the book, it is often mentioned that when the ranchers are tired or have had a long day, they go to the whorehouse where they pay to have sex with prostitutes. They are treated like objects to be used by men for their pleasure. In chapter 3, we see the men often talking about the whorehouse. ‘“Yeah,” said Whit. “We don’t never go there. Clara gets three bucks a crack and thirty-five cents a shot, and she don’t crack no jokes. But Susy’s place is clean, and she got nice chairs.”’ Due to the loneliness of the rancher life, the men then view women as sexual objects instead of people. Hence, paying to have sex in the whore house.
Further on, the reader can see the objectification of women illustrated through Curley’s wife. She is the only female character who frequently appears in the story. Despite her important role, she is nameless and only referred to as “Curley’s wife”. This is intended to display how females are dependent on and owned by men; they lack importance.
“Well, that glove’s fulla Vaseline.” “Vaseline? What the hell for?” “Well, I will tell ya what – Curley says he’s keepin’ that hand soft for his wife.” In this quote it is very clear to see that Curley’s marriage is a performance just to impress the other men on the ranch. He feels the constant need to prove that he is better than everybody else just because he has a wife, even though he treats her with no respect as he thinks that he is superior to her. He persistently uses her to show off how manly he is.
Since women were portrayed like this, men felt the right to tell them what they can or can’t do. For example, “Candy’s face had grown redder and redder, but before she was done speaking, he had control of himself. He was the master of the situation. ‘I might of knew,’ he said gently. ‘Maybe you just better go along an’ roll your hoop. We ain’t got nothing to say to you at all. We know what we got, and we don’t care whether you know it or not.’” In this quote, we can tell that Candy sees her as inferior to him because she is a woman. He feels that he can tell her what to do, as women were seen as the “weaker” sex at the time.
Sexism has always been a problematic issue throughout history. Even now, women are still treated with prejudice in society. However, over the past 70 years, women in the US have made major strides at work and beyond. Women make up nearly half the labour force and are now earning college degrees at a faster rate than men. In the 1930s, women’s rights were barely looked upon, women were treated like sexualised objects, and even though that is still happening, it’s looked down upon rather than normalised. However, just 30 years later, women’s rights movements (largely based in the United States) sought equal rights, opportunities and greater personal freedom for women.
