1. Gender And Discrimination
An Inspector Calls

2. At the time of the setting of the play…
Women were used as possessions by men
Women didn’t have the same rights as men
Even upper class women had few choices. For most, the best they could hope for was to impress a rich man and marry well - which could explain why Sheila spent so long in Milwards.

3. At the time of the setting of the play…
Upper class women could only hope for a bright future if they found a rich man and Sheila was successful in doing so therefore there was so much celebration in the Birling Household in the beginning of the play.

4. At the time of the setting of the play…
For working class women, a job was crucial. There was no social security at that time, so without a job they had no money. There were very few options open to women in that situation: many saw no alternative but to turn to prostitution.
Eva Smith represented all the working class women at the time and that is how the viewers get to understand their situation at the time.

5. At the time of the setting of the play…
Times were starting to change ( the play is set at a time of political and social unrest)

6. How is this theme presented?
The way that the men try to protect Sheila and Mrs Birling throughout the play.
-‘Sheila take your mother along to the drawing- room – …go on Sybil.’ (pg 52)
Mr Birling is dismissive of the several hundred women in his factory:
- "We were paying the usual rates and if they didn't like those rates, they could go and work somewhere else.”

7. How is this theme presented?
Mr. Birling (pg 17) ‘Nothing to do with you, Sheila. Run along.’ – views Sheila as unable to understand situations and so tries to exclude her
Gerald saw Eva as "young and fresh and charming" - in other words, someone vulnerable he could amuse himself by helping.

8. How is this theme presented?
Mrs Birling couldn't believe that "a girl of that sort would ever refuse money." Her charitable committee was a sham: a small amount of money was given to a small amount of women, hardly ever making the lives of lower-class women better.

9. How is this theme presented?
Eva smith, being a lower class woman, lived in a society where she had no influence or power. (pg 15) ‘She’d had a lot to say - far too much - she had to go’. Her identity as a woman is deeply bound with the identity as a member of the working class.

10. How the theme is reflected through each female character…
Mrs. Birling - middle class woman of considerable influence - involved in good works, considered a suitable occupation for a lady in society. Women of higher classes did not work, but did only charitable work. This was seen as acceptable as it was a caring role that fitted with the idealised Victorian view, still held then, of women as mothers. She accepts her role as a married woman of a rich guy whose work is very important.

11. How the theme is reflected through each female character…
Sheila - follows this path by not working, the only occupation mentioned which she does is shopping. Mr. Birling (pg 9) ‘Yes, but you’ve got to remember, my boy, that clothes mean something quite different to a woman.’
However, her character opposes the nature of the theme throughout: Sheila has greater independence in mind and spirit and she does not comply with the ordinary attitudes. For example, she is not ready to accept the fact Gerald’s work will come between their relationship: ‘I don’t believe I will’ (pg 3), and objects to Birling’s commands: ‘protesting’ (pg 52)

12. How the theme is reflected through each female character…
Daisy/Eva - a working class girl, possibly an orphan, who has to work for a living and is seen to be completely at the mercy of men.

13. How the Inspector handles it…
He does not dismiss Eva just because she had to go to prostitution- he realizes that she had no choice.
He treats her death with a strong concerned attitude; does not dissolve the intensity of the crime just because the victim was female.

14. How the Inspector handles it…
Talks firmly and severely to both genders- no difference between them.
Inspector (pg 27) ‘And you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things?’ : He is trying to back up women in society and questions the altered attitude towards them.

15. How the theme contributes to Eva’s death
At the point when Eva had nothing to live for: ‘…no home to go back to…’ (pg 19), and the fact that she is pregnant without any financial support as a result of gender and womanhood is what pushes her over the edge. As a result of Eva's position as a woman - in the days before women were valued by society and had not yet been awarded the right to vote - she was in an even worse position than a lower class man.

16. Why a woman?
Significant that the victim is a woman- the play may not have been successful if the victim was a man- grabs sympathy from the audience and so it is essential that Eva is shown as vulnerable as possible (if the victim was a man they would not have been taken advantage of and exposed to such cruelty like Eva was by Gerald and Eric sexually)

17. Bibliography
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