The Portrayal of Female Leadership in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls
Abstract
This study is an attempt to discuss the notion of feminism in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls (1982). The plot mainly surrounds the success of women in a society in which they had been considered as the second sex, as described by the French feminist figure Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949). Her theories on feminism and gender roles have been continuously applied to interpreting literary texts. Therefore, this article tries to integrate de Beauvoir’s theory on feminism into Top Girls. It explores how different generations of women are presented in the play and the way they have struggled with patriarchal rules. Moreover, it tries to explore how the play discusses the themes of; sisterhood, motherhood, abortion, socialism, and capitalism. The study shows how women are perceived in society when they choose a career over motherhood. It discusses the main character’s role as she reaches the top of her career, despite all the obstacles she faces as a female in a patriarchal society.
Downloads
References
Aston, E. (2003). Feminist Views on the English Stage: Women Playwrights, 1990-2000. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Athma Priya, S.S. (2019). Deconstructing gender stereotypes in Caryl Churchill’s top girls. Language in India, 19(9), 1-5.
de Beauvoir, S. (1953). The Second Sex. London: Jonathan Cape. Churchill, C. (2013). Top Girls. London: Bloomsbury.
Cuddy, A.J., Fiske, S.T., & Glick, P. (2004). When professionals become mothers, warmth doesn’t cut the ice. Journal of Social Issues, 60(4), 701-718.
Djundjung, J.M., & Yong, Y.B. (2002). Feminist perspective of cross-gender power relation in caryl Churchill’s top girls. Studentjournal, 4(2), 160-178.
Erkan, A.Ü. (2018). Reinterpreting history and restructuring female identities in Caryl Churchill’s top girls an Timberlake Wertenbaker’s our country’s good. Kastamonu Eğitim Dergisi, 26(3), 721-728.
Humm, M. (2003). The Dictionary of Feminist Theory. Edinburg: Edinburg University Press.
Lama, S. (2021). Rupturing the Boundary in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls [Master’s Thesis, Tribhuvan University]. Nepal: Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus.
Martin, C. (1996). A Sourcebook of Feminist Theatre and Performance On and Beyond the Stage. London: Routledge.
McRobbie, A. (1990). Postmodernism and Consumer Culture. London: Routledge.
McRobbie, A. (2007). Top girls? Young women and the post-feminist sexual contract. Cultural Studies, 21(4-5), 718-737.
Ravari, Z.K., & Naidu, S. (2011). Top girls: Implications of predominance, wealth, and reputation of women. Canadian Social Science, 7(1), 25-37.
Rich, A. (1976). Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. New York: WW Norton and Company.
Smazilova, P. (2008). Reflection of Gender and Political Issues in Top Girls and Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill. Available from: https://dk.upce.cz/handle/10195/29007 [Last accessed on 2024 Jun 01].
Copyright (c) 2025 Ala B. Ahmed, Meram S.S. Mohamad
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
