The Circle has a 24-year-old woman as a protagonist, and although many readers might be excited to see a young woman taking center stage in a novel about the tech world, Mae Holland is so naïve, malleable, and uninformed about the world around her that you may come away with some serious questions about the gender politics in the novel. Mae is no Katniss Everdeen, that's for sure—if anything, she's more like President Coin. On the other hand, hardly any of the Circlers in the novel are particularly sympathetic.
Still, what's all this say about women and femininity in The Circle as a whole? Let's dig in and see.
Questions About Women and Femininity
- In The Circle, how many women hold positions of significant power within the Circle?
- Compared to the kinds of roles that are held by the powerful men at the Circle, what kinds of roles are held by the most prominent women in the company?
- How do Mae Holland's relationships with men steer the choices that she makes at the Circle?
- How do Mae Holland's relationships with other women influence the decisions that she makes at the Circle?
Chew on This
The Circle presents a biased and ultimately sexist view of women and femininity. By having a totalitarian regime be brought into being through a young woman's naivety, gullibility, and misguided idealism, the novel brings us right back to the story of Adam and Eve and lets women shoulder the blame (yet again) for the Fall.
Although Mae Holland is technically responsible for much of what happens in The Circle, she's not really the person behind it all. The novel gives us many more examples of misguided, naïve men than it does of overly impressionable young women like Mae.