How is gender presented in An Inspector Calls

In the play the gender of the characters affects their role and importance. This is portrayed through various ways such as Mrs. Birlings lack of speech and involvement in her daughters engagement. However, Mr. Birling has a forceful input in the relationship as he knows he has more power over who he wants is daughter to marry then herself.
This was a shared view in society as women of lower class or poor were used to get married or as cheap labor.
Mr. Birling highlights the way women workers were treated, “We were paying the usual rates and if they didn’t like those rates, they could go and work somewhere else.” This could suggest that Mr. Birling didn’t fire her because she was asking for higher wages, but due to the fact it was a women who doesn’t have those rights. In those times particularly Eva would’ve been in a worse position than a lower class man.
Although Sheila has a limited amount of power, the role she played in Eva’s death portrays that she wants more. “I caught a sight of this girl smiling … as if to say ‘doesn’t she look awful’” is how Sheila conveys that just because she felt jealous she saw it as the only opportunity she could get to feel powerful and above herself.
Gerald saw Eva as “young and fresh and charming” – which we all know he means someone vulnerable and needy. This again shows how he had no respect for Eva just like Mr. Birling and how they both knew they had control over her.
Mrs. Birling didn’t treat her in the same way as the others as she was more smug about her power over Eva. She even states she couldn’t believe that “a girl of that sort would ever refuse money.”
Priestly uses Eva as she is in the worse position and is the most vulnerable to men and women of higher class – the perfect victim.