Shaw's Daughters: Dramatic and Narrative Constructions of Gender

This book provides a vital intervention in theater history by systematically deconstructing the long-held assumption that George Bernard Shaw was an exceptionally progressive, early feminist playwright. Examining three central character tropes, Gainor introduces previously unexamined reviews and essays written by Shaw’s female contemporaries, revealing a distinct resistance to his depictions of women. She argues that Shaw’s "unwomanly women" were not truly liberated; rather, Shaw anchored his concepts of female equality strictly in masculine attributes, striping his independent female characters of their sexuality to make them fit patriarchal molds. By situating his dramaturgy firmly within the dominant social, psychological, and medical ideologies of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, the book proves that Shaw’s gender constructions were deeply bound to the traditional constraints of his time.