Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

In A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry emphasizes the struggle of equality from the female characters presented in the play. She has these characters face realistic issues to show the struggle of gender inequality in the 1950’s. Each of the women had their own set of problems facing this problem, but all strived towards the same goal. Throughout “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, Gender Inequality is experienced through Ruth, Lena, and Beneatha. Ruth Younger is faced with the issue of the authority of men being greater than women. Despite the fact that she is a loving wife to her husband Walter, she feels like her opinion doesn't matter in his eyes because she is a woman who is supposed to clean the house and raise the children. Walter also believes that women are supposed to “build their men up and making ‘em …show more content…
Unlike other girls in the 1950’s, she wanted to pursue being a doctor. This shows that she “refuses to accept the subservient position often seen as natural for women” (qtd. in Burke 95). This shows that she rejects the stereotype of what women can and can’t do, but people like Walter think that she “should go be a nurse like other women-or just be married and be quiet” (Hansberry 27-28). Walter is not the only man who thinks this way because Beneatha’s suitors, George Murchison and Joseph Asagai, are the same way. George believes that Beneatha should just be a “nice-simple-sophisticated girl,” which means that he wants her to be like normal women and just be polite and quiet (Hansberry 146). Asagai believes that he “can only take women only just so seriously”(Hansberry 51). This means that he is not used to being with a women who believes that she has a right to an opinion and believes that he is just as important as men. Beneatha portrays young women who want to be above their stereotype as being polite and quite and have the same opportunities that men