What Is The Role Of Women In The Great Gatsby

Throughout history, women were expected to be conservative, ladylike, and conform to society. However, during the 1900’s, the role of women began to change. Women wore short their hair short in a hairstyle, known as a bob, and broke out of their traditional attire. The novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, demonstrates how women tried to break out of the social norms by becoming flappers, but ultimately were held back due to the stereotypes placed upon them by men. Although the role of women was changing during the 19th century, in the novel, The Great Gatsby, women were still viewed unequal to men, because of the sexist stereotypes placed, which ultimately holding back the progression of women. Before this time
When Daisy was younger, she would date multiple men at once and sleep with them. However, this had to stop because of her family’s image, and she could not ruin it (Fitzgerald 75). In the novel, Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband, has multiple affairs. He has an affair with Myrtle throughout the novel, up until her death. He even invites Nick, Mr. and Mrs. McKee, and Cathrine, Myrtle’s sister, to stay with him and his mistress (Fitzgerald 30). However, when Daisy had her affair with Gatsby, everything was done in private. Tom has an affair with Daisy on their honeymoon. He has an affair with, they manage to get into a car accident, which winds up in the newspaper, and she was mentioned as well because her arm broke, and she is known as, “one of the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara Hotel” (Fitzgerald 77). When Tom finds out Daisy is having an affair with Gatsby, there is a major conflict because it was not acceptable for women to have affairs. Women knew their husbands had affairs, however they were expected to ignore it (“The Roaring Twenties”). This is why Daisy says, “I hope she’ll be a fool, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 17). If her daughter grows up to be pretty and unintelligent, she will not have to deal with the pain of knowing if her husband were to ever cheat on her. A final example is Tom disliking how women have affairs, meanwhile he has had multiple. “By God, [Tom] may be old-fashioned in my ideas, but women run around too much these days to suit [him]” (Fitzgerald 103). Tom, who has had multiple affairs while being married to Daisy, says that women are going after too many men. The hypocrisy in Tom’ statement is quite evident that he is being very sexist, because he is saying how it is acceptable for a man to go after multiple women, but the reverse is not acceptable. Women were unable to move forward due men