Reverse Gender Roles in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

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Recommended: Portrayal of women in literature

The role gender holds in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is not one many were familiar with at the time it was written. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz reverses the accepted gender roles of its time, women taking control, even helping men in times of need. This idea is depicted throughout the entire novel, affecting almost every character introduced. This novel essentially questions and challenges the accepted beliefs on the roles of gender in the society at that time, showing how things would be if roles were different. With this, through a description of the characters, you can see who was empowered by Baum and who held an inferior role.
In this novel, the women and the men have very different roles. Baum created strong and powerful women, but needy and inferior men. The main women in the novel, such as Dorothy, the Stork, the Queen of Mice and Glinda, all handled things on their own as well as did things to help the men in the novel. On the other hand, the main men in the novel, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Lion and the Wizard, all were unable to do things completely on their own and needed help, usually from the women. This clearly shows that the empowered characters in the novel were the main women characters.
Dorothy, the main character, was highly empowered by Baum. Just the idea that a woman was the main role in a novel was shocking enough, but the way she acted throughout pulled it all together. When Dorothy ended up in Oz after the cyclone she knew she had to get back home to her Aunt and Uncle. Even though she was scared at first to make the journey to the Wizard, to find out how to get home, she took initiative to do it on her own, “”Come along, Toto” she said. “We will go to the Emerald City and ask the Great Oz how t...

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... Wizards mistake and Dorothy was able to get home, one final reminder of the inferiority of men in the novel and the empowerment of women.
Baum took a different approach on gender than many did in this time period. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz reverses the accepted gender roles of its time, women taking control, even helping men in times of need. Throughout the novel are a number of examples of a woman helping a man through a problem, and a woman getting through her problems on her own. This novel was one of the first signs of feminism, putting the woman into power. As Baum said, “Never give up. No one knows what’s going to happen next” (www.goodreads.com).

Works Cited

Baum, L. Frank. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. N.p.: Rise of Douai, 2013. Print.
"L. Frank Baum Quotes." L. Frank Baum Quotes (Author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz). N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2013.

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