Gender Roles In J. B Priestley's An Inspector Calls

An Inspector calls were written by J.B Priestly whom had added hidden meanings and ideas of the patriarchal society of how the divide of class and gender was shown. in the early 20th century everyone acted according to class, for example the Birling’s whom was upper class had looked down on the social class and women and men were expected to marry before they have children: only men were allowed to work and women had to stay at home go care for the children and the household those who did not keep these ideas were not accepted in society.

When we first meet the Birling family Sheila (the daughter) when she was having an engagement party as she had been recently been engaged to Gerald Croft. She is described as “a pretty girl in her early twenties, very Pleased with life and rather excited." This shows that she may be naïve and that it is quite unusual attitude in the patriarchal society. There are many ideas behind why she got engaged to Gerald this as it may be simply love but, some may argue

that it could be because of business as Gerald’s mother is Lady Croft this means that she is upper class and that they had to marry these in the same class. It is evident that both parents approve of this is influenced by “is one of the happiest nights of my life." This shows that Arthur Birling isn’t just happy for Sheila but for himself as his business would merge with Croft Limited. This shows that women were just for show and that they were used for other purposes.
Sybil However, is the opposite of Sheila as we first see her as "about fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband's social superior." This shows that she is snob and that she takes the fact that she is upper class in her stride. She also, tries to encourage Sheila also, to be married this is influenced by ‘when you’re married, you’ll realise that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend all their time and energy on their business. You’ll have to get used to that, just as I had.’ This shows that she is supporting the fact that Sheila is marrying. This gives me the impression that parents had to approve of the person in order to influence their daughter to marry them. The words ‘You’ll have to get used to that, just as I had’ displays that every women in the early 20th century had the same idealism of having to tolerate their husbands working. Perhaps Priestly has done this to show that daughters in generations had to follow the same cycle of marrying those approved by their parents.
We hear about Eva by Inspector Goole Priestly uses Eva/Daisy to symbolise the things wrong with that society and how it actually effected lower classes as well as women. She was affected and taken advantage of from each member of the Birling family each thing each thing supposedly contributing to her death. She had: an affair with Gerald, A baby with Eric, Turned down by Sybil, Fired by Arthur and made Fired by Sheila.
When Eva had worked for Arthur as a factory worker, she along with others decided to strike for a higher pay but Arthur couldn’t risk the reputation of his company to fall so he decided to fire her this is evident when he says ‘she’d had a lot to say – far too much – so she had to go of course.” This shows that women at the time was not given a chance to speak out and make a change to benefit them because as far as society knows women her at home cooking, cleaning and caring for the children. This gives met the impression that women’s voices were not allowed to be heard in the early 20th century. Moreover, when Eva worked in the Dress shop Sheila had a fired for simply smiling at her this is inferred when she says ‘She was very pretty and looked like she could take care of herself.’ This implies that Sheila did not care of the wellbeing of her but she only cared about her reputation and her wellbeing so she had Eva fired and the people in the shop obeyed this order. Imaginably, Priestly has done this to show that the upper class had bigger influences on businesses and that women were easily disposable in a workplace simply because a client didn’t like them. When Sheila said ‘she could take care of herself’ implies that she suspects that Eva can look after herself and don’t know the outside of the box and oblivious to the fact that Eva would now have no money to live.
Priestly also, tried to show how men took advantage of women because of their venerable status.

This is shown when both Eric and Gerald had used her for sexual relations. When Gerald describes Eva as “very pretty-soft dark hair and brown eyes” gives me the impression that he only got to know Eva because of her looks and not because of her personality. It is also arguable that Gerald helped Eva as he was “I was sorry for her;" his shows that he may be just a good person for giving her a place to stay but it took at first when we was confronted by the inspector he kept it a secret for a while as he did not want Sheila to know or maybe because it would affect his place in class for having an affair. Eric also had a relationship with Eva when he met her he was drunk as "Oh - my God! - how stupid it all is!” this is giving me the impression that he is trying to avoid the fact that he had a responsibility and that he felt guilty for leaving Eva as she fell prevent with his

baby.
So far we have learnt that Eva has no home, no money and that she is pregnant. So she goes to the community centre for help, but, Sybil is appalled by the fact that Eva had to use a married name in order to get help so she used the Birling name so Sybil took this the wrong way and dismissed her. This is evident when she says ‘I didn’t like her manner. ‘She impertinently made use of our name.’ this suggests that in the early 20th century that women were seen as nothing if they had a baby before marriage so Sybil being upper class turned her down or maybe because she was furious of her using the Birling name because she did not wat her reputation to be jeopardised.