Gender Roles in Churchill's Top Girls

Human gender roles have an innate origin; indeed, many species of animals exhibit behavior that is markedly different between males and females. However, when one group feels it is getting an unfair share of life’s burdens, a society should consider if these gender roles are indeed fair in the light of its evolution over time. The characters in Act 1, Scene 1 of Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, stand as symbols of successful women in various times and places through the past 1200 years. In their interactions and in Marlene’s relation with her family, the characters demonstrate how women have evolved in their roles, though much progress remains to be made in bettering women's roles. A large part of women's trouble comes from successful women not helping other contemporary and future women to achieve success.

With regard to helping to form future successful women, Churchill’s characters demonstrate that by far the most difficult aspect of their struggle has been women’s need to establish for themselves and future women, a definition of femininity that exists intrinsically and separately from the meaning of men’s roles. For example, Lady Nijo and Pope Joan represent the two poles of early medieval womanhood. Nijo, an Emporer's courtesan, is able to be successful as a woman, but only by selling, and thus essentially relinquishing, her sexuality. Joan, on the other hand, represses her sexuality as best she can. In order to be considered successful, early medieval women symbolized by Nijo and Joan either exploited their sexuality for a very temporary benefit, or they suppressed their feminine sexuality—until it forcibly brought itself forward. Each method of gaining success is of dubious benefit to future women, and neither lays a single cobblestone on the path that future women must travel to reach prosperity.

Indeed, a drawback of such methods of achievement is that both may hinder the success of future women. Following what must have been perceived as a tragic mistake in electing Pope Joan, (endnote 1) the College of Cardinals decides that they will inspect the genitalia of future popes (19), essentially ensuring that all future popes are male. Nijo’s attacking her Emperor (27) is likely to have caused the emperor to restrict significantly the liberty of his concubines, the liberty that Nijo enjoyed. In this way, future women are prevented from achieving what Joan and Nijo do. What remains to be seen in analyzing other characters is if Nijo and Joan are blazing a path for future women, or if they are in fact obstructing the path to achievement.

Judging by Gret, readers find that spirits are not deterred. An ugly, toothless Flemish housewife, she is clad in armour and an apron as she leads her peers to hell to fight "them devils" (28) of self-indulgence and side-tracking elusive goals. (endnote 2) Since Churchill does not call Gret "Meg" (the painting is also known as Mad Meg), readers infer that Churchill does not consider her actions mad, but heroic. Nonethless, Gret has no feminine qualities, other than her apron and pan, symbols of her domestic slavery; she has no real identity as a female. Griselda, by contrast, retains her femininity, though she ends up abused much the same way that Nijo is. The critical difference separating Gret and Nijo from Griselda is that Griselda accepts her husband’s transgressions without any fight, which might explain her late arrival in heaven. Griselda "arrives unnoticed" (19) and is treated coldly because she submits and allows her husband to abuse her--until she finally gets abandoned for a new wife. Griselda exists as a foil to the other characters, in that she has done little to make herself successful and more to obstruct advancement for other women.

Griselda’s late arrival could indicate that she is like the women who abandon Gret's cause in order to "stop and get some" money (28) from the demon on the house, the same way that Griselda ‘stopped and got some’ from her rich suitor. We suspect further that Griselda is among the foolish women in hell because Gret describes her husband as a bastard (23), the same word with which she describes the demons she fights in hell (28). In short, Griselda exists for the strategic effect of her being a foil and as a means for the group to air their objections to her lifestyle once she has told her story.

Isabella represents a stronger spirit than any of her predecessors, and a spirit less abstract than Gret's. She wears trousers because she feels like it (29), and she flatly refuses to "live the life of a lady," (26) though she does not repress her femininity to the extent Joan did. On the other hand, she finds that questions pondered by men, such as religion, make her "head ache" (6). While Victorian women like Joan were able to be more self-asserting, even choosing marriage partners, they were still defined not so much by their achievements, than in terms men's or their husbands'. Moreover, while she lives her life, Isabella's contributions to future women's achievements are marginal.

Readers observe that Isabella's problem finding contentedness is the same faced by Marlene and modern women; that is, how does a woman define herself if not in terms of men? A woman can say what she is not, but then what is she? Marlene, symbolic of the modern businesswoman, faces this problem as she attempts to juggle her parental responsibilities with her job. Needless to say, she does a miserable job with the former, essentially abandoning her daughter to the care of an aunt at birth, as well as having two later abortions (81). She has advanced little beyond Nijo, who was forced to give up her children, if only in the sense that she elects to give up the child. Despite all that has been accomplished, Churchill’s women still have to at least divert attention from their children in order to succeed on the job.

The effect of a lack of attention manifests itself in Angie's antisocial behavior, which readers infer to be detrimental her future achievement. (Consider for example when Marlene acknowledges on 66 that "she's not going to make it.) Indeed, Marlene’s attitude towards Angie is lackadaisical, at best, and at worst, hostile. I was shocked when Angie went to visit Marlene and was asked, "Have you an appointment?" (53). While one might defend Marlene with the almost-ridiculous claim that she did not recognize her own daughter, after Angie has introduced herself, Marlene asks her, "How did you get past the receptionist?" (53). I felt that Marlene has built up a castle against her innocent daughter, with whom she clearly does not want to be bothered. Additionally, educating Angie is not a priority for anyone. The family's energies are instead focused on calling each other, "stupid" (75), an attitude that explains why Angie has dropped out of school after having been in remediation for two years (77). Despite the extent to which Angie admires Marlene as a role model (66), and despite all her inborn cleverness (43), if Angie "makes it", it will be not because of her mother's guidance.

While Joyce has accepted some burden of rearing Angie, Marlene assumes none of the mother-daughter emotional bond that will be critical to Angie's success. Indeed, Marlene forsakes her chance to raise a successful daughter. Marlene has known of Angie's troubles for a year (endnote 3) and done nothing but to write her off. Puzzlingly, Marlene is clearly concerned with women's achievement when she cheers Margaret Thatcher's election on the basis that Thatcher is a woman (84). If Marlene indeed values Thatcher's individualism (and not just her monetary policy), readers can understand why Marlene's individualistic nature contributes directly to Angie's lack of nurture and accompanying lack of potential. Gone is Gret's army of women battling self-indulgence, replaced by individualism at the expense of future women's accomplishment, most notably Angie's. Specifically, if Angie is to live to her potential, it will be in spite of her feminist-individualist mother, not because of her.

Marlene's individualism also is apparent at her employment agency, which upholds traditional stereotypes that suppress women, manifested in the infantising name "Girls," and interviewers' attitudes. Interviewers openly support traditional notions of older women not being able to change jobs--the same blatant sexism that Louise’s male employer exhibits (42). They also tell women that "an employer is going to have doubts about you as a lady" (61). The play's question of women balancing their lives in social, business, and family arenas is less important than the issue of to what extent feminism is advancing women as a whole, and to what extent certain individual women are gaining success at the expense of future generations.

Churchill leaves these critical questions open to readers' analysis. In Top Girls, the fighting spirit of women (except Griselda) lives on, and much has been accomplished as a result. On the other hand, women are less concerned to fight as a team, and future women's journeys to success are derailed by an over-individualistic spirit that fails to recognize the need for women to come together and form their collective identity. Marlene is defined by her own accomplishments, not some man's, but she has yet to find her true identity as a woman. If women fight only as individuals and not as a team with a mutual goal, they will be unable to form their own identities as females and be retarding the progress of future women.