‘What freedom men and women could have, were they not constantly tricked and trapped and enslaved and tortured by their sexuality’ – John Steinbeck
In ‘Of Mice and Men’ and ‘An Inspector Calls’ both authors indirectly show their beliefs and opinions towards women and the way they are treated by society. In the time both texts were set- 1912 and the 1930’s- women were generally seen as a lesser class than men and due to their sexuality, they were not treated fairly. Steinbeck and Priestley show this at many points in their texts.
Both Eva Smith and Curley’s wife are victims of their class as Eva is victimised by each member of the Birling Family, who each make her life harder and each of them are ultimately partially responsible for her …show more content…

The suffragette movement can be linked to ‘AIC’ as Eva protests against Mr Birling for higher wages. ‘She had a lot to say- far too much- so she had to go’. Around the time of the suffragette movement women were becoming more opinionated, wanted more rights and wanted a voice for themselves rather than being subservient to men like they had been in the past; Mr Birling shows how many men did not like the idea of an opinionated and independent woman as he sacks Eva for having ‘too much to say’ and Eva can be seen as representative of the more opinionated women who went on strike. Also, the idea of social class and status are clearly shown throughout the play through the characters of the Birling family and Eva smith/ Daisy Renton, as each of the Birling’s either uses her, turns their nose up at her or rejects her because she is not as high up in the social hierarchy as them. This then lead to Eva’s demise into loneliness and despair.
‘Of Mice and Men’ was written in 1937 and purposely set throughout the time of The Great Depression. At this time, almost every American citizen was without or had very little money- compared to what they had before- no matter what their gender or class and thousands were