Gender Roles And Stereotypes In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’, conveys a number of radical gender roles and stereotypes for men and women. This short story uses extreme and morbid themes to suggest these particular gender roles and highlights the negative aspects of patriarchal societies through the ritual of the ‘lottery’. Jackson depicts these themes by outlining gender roles in families and gender roles in society. These aspects are conveyed through their ideas of family structure, differing dialogue between men and women, and the lottery ritual itself.

Throughout the text, Jackson alludes to the idea of gender roles in a family setting, and how they’re perceived and enforced. The story depicts families that conform and rely on traditional gender roles such as, fathers being the leader and representative of their households, sons being the next most dominant family member, and women following the rules

set out by these men.
The lottery itself is structured around this idea of family. The father is selected to draw the piece of paper and if a family has no father, their eldest boy is chosen. This process reinforces the idea that the males of a family are the ‘head of the household’ and emphasises the importance of gender roles in their society. These gender roles are also highlighted by the fact that daughters draw with their husbands families instead of their parents families, this tells the audience that women's social identities are defined entirely by their husbands rather than themselves.
An explain of this would be the passage; “‘Who's drawing for him?’.

‘Me, I guess,’ a woman said. and Mr. Summers turned to look at her. ‘Wife draws for her husband.’ Mr. Summers said. ‘Don't you have a grown boy to do it for you, Janey?’”, In this quote, Jane is the only member of her family eligible to participate. Her and Mr Summers both show hesitation and unease at this idea as it’s unusual and looked down upon to have a woman participate in the lottery. The line, “Me, I guess” shows Janes hesitation. She knows what she is doing is untraditional and she is concerned for herself. The passage also uses a rhetorical question in Mr Summers dialogue. This emphasises the unconventionality of having a women represent her family. The question is mocking Jane and the embarrassing situation of doing a mans job. Jackson writes like this in order to emphasise the theme of conventional gender roles. The language in this passage suggests that families in this community view women as inferior to men, and conclude that women need men to free them from the hardship of selecting their own piece of

paper.
Another passage which portrays the theme of gender is; “I’m drawing for my mother and me.’ He blinked his eyes nervously and ducked his head as several voices in the crowd said things like ‘Good fellow, lack.’ and ‘Glad to see your mother’s got a man to do it.’”. In this quote, Jackson demonstrates the fact that this town sees women as less important than all males, even male children who are barely old enough to accept the adult responsibility of drawing in the lottery. When the boy announces he will be drawing for his family, his dialogue and behaviour is nervous, he is young, confused, and not prepared for the responsibility of representing his household, yet he has to anyway, for fear of diverting from his communities gender roles. The crowd responding with comments like “Glad to see your mother’s got a man to do it”, reinforces this same idea of gender that this community focuses on, the idea that women would be helpless in the process of the lottery without the help of a man.
The entire text is a commentary on traditional gender roles in families and communities and how they function in society.