Gender and the Interpretation of Drama.
Around the world, gender is the primary division between people. Each society sets up barriers to provide unequal access to power, property, and prestige on the basis of sex (Friedl 1990). Throughout history women have been placed second to men. Approximately one billion adults around the world cannot read; two-thirds are women. About 130 million children are not enrolled in grade school; 70 percent are girls (Ashford 1995). In the United States, women hold about 10 percent of national legislative seats, which reveals that women lack equal access to national decision making (Riley 1997). In every nation, women average less pay then men (Ashford 1997). A global human rights issue is violence against women (Crossman 1995). Of the many aspects of gender discrimination in everyday life that could be examined, the question of gender and authorship has emerged. Gender is relevant when interpreting a dramatic text but it should not be treated as a distinct variable. When one interprets a dramatic event gender should be subsumed into the overall meaning of a work.
As seen in the introduction, women have and continue to face many hardships because of their gender. Theater is a place where women and men should be able to have the freedom to explore themselves as writers and individuals, not just as women or men. I am a woman but that does not mean that I lack masculinity or that a man is unable to be feminine. When interpreting a dramatic text one should analyze the thematic and structural elements and by doing this the reader will not only have a better understanding of the piece but will be able to uncover deeper meaning. If one's focus is primarily gender they may not be able to see the author's true purpose because they may make their own assumptions on the basis of the playwrights sex.
When women such as Aphra Behn began writing plays many of the plays were tools to recreate people's thoughts on gender and specifically reveal what women were capable of and how they had been oppressed.
