How gender works in the play
The world of the play is deeply unequal between men and women, and Priestley uses that inequality to deepen his social criticism. In 1912, respectable women like Sheila and Mrs Birling are expected to be pretty, agreeable and concerned with marriage and appearances, while the men make the decisions and run the businesses. Women are protected from unpleasant truths and defined by their relationships to men.
At the bottom of this system is Eva Smith, a working-class woman with none of the protections wealth might bring. She is exploited by men who can use her and move on, and judged harshly by a woman who should have helped her. Priestley shows a clear double standard: men like Gerald and Eric face little consequence for their behaviour, while the woman they used is destroyed. Because the play is in copyright, I quote short lines only; use your copy of the script for the full text.
Key gender quotes in An Inspector Calls
“young and fresh and charming”
Where: Gerald, Act 2Gerald describing Eva as Daisy Renton. Even when sympathetic, he values her for her youth and looks, qualities a man like him could enjoy and discard. Argue that Priestley shows women being prized for appearance by the men who exploit them.
“men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on their business”
Where: Mrs Birling, Act 1Mrs Birling instructing Sheila to accept men's priorities. It captures the 1912 expectation that women should defer to men's work and lives. Use it to show how gender roles are taught and upheld, even by women.
“these girls aren't cheap labour, they're people”
Where: Sheila, Act 1Sheila beginning to see beyond her decorative role to the reality of a working woman's life. Argue that her growing conscience quietly challenges the passive femininity her society expects of her.
“she had only herself to blame”
Where: Mrs Birling, Act 2One woman judging another, harshly and without sympathy. It shows how gender and class combine: Mrs Birling condemns a vulnerable woman rather than helping her. Use it for the double standard the play exposes.
“I don't come into this suicide business”
Where: Gerald, Act 1Gerald's early attempt to distance himself, before his affair is revealed. Argue that the men in the play expect to face no consequences for how they treat women, a privilege Eva never shares.
How gender develops across the play
Gender roles are on show from the opening celebration, where Sheila is the happy bride-to-be defined by her engagement, Mrs Birling upholds the rules of respectable womanhood, and the men discuss business and politics. The women are expected to withdraw and leave the men to serious matters. This is the ordered, unequal world the Inspector will disturb.
As the play unfolds, the treatment of women becomes its own indictment. Eva is used by Gerald and Eric and condemned by Mrs Birling, exposing a double standard in which men act and women pay. Against this, Sheila grows into the most clear-sighted person on stage, outgrowing the passive role assigned to her, while her mother stays trapped in it. Priestley does not make gender his loudest theme, but he weaves it through the play so that the mistreatment of women becomes part of his larger attack on an unjust society.
Using gender in the exam
Write about gender as part of Priestley's wider social criticism, not in isolation. Show the double standard, men like Gerald and Eric using Eva with little consequence while she is destroyed, and use Mrs Birling to show women upholding the system too. Sheila's growth is your evidence that these roles can be challenged.
For a perceptive point, connect gender to class, arguing that Eva suffers most because she is both poor and female, with no power on either count. Bring in the limited position of women in 1912. Anchor the theme to the Sheila and Eva Smith pages, and gather the wider evidence on the key quotes page.
Revise gender alongside class, since Eva suffers as both poor and female, and responsibility, the duty the men evade. See how they connect on the An Inspector Calls themes page and secure your lines with the key quotes page.