Imagine waking up with the President and Congress defeated and the United States ruled by radical “Christian fundamentalists” (Beauchamp). In The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, this terrible scenario is not a dream, but a reality. Atwood admitted in an interview with Mervyn Rothstien of The New York Times: "I put off writing it for about three years after I had the idea because I thought it was too crazy. » Indeed, the dystopian society of the Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States, is a frightening thought but raises questions about the treatment of women in today's society. The Handmaids Tale is a futuristic science fiction novel narrated by a Handmaid, a woman whose sole purpose is to conceive children, named Ofglen. The Canadian writer is known for feminist allusions in her novels, but The Handmaid's Tale moves away from light feminism and towards radical feminism. Feminism is an ideology that promotes the equality of women over men and has been an issue for centuries. In the United States, women did not gain the right to vote until the 1920s, and women were not accepted into the workforce until the 1960s (Loveday). Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale depicts feminism in an anti-feminist environment through point of view, restrictions on women, and male power. Due to increasing infertility rates, the Republic decided to enforce the use of handmaids. The idea of ​​handmaids comes from the Bible: “Sarai, Abraham's wife, bore him no children; she had a servant, an Egyptian woman named Hagar” (The Hebrew-Greek Bible, Genesis 16:1). Sarai, Abraham's wife, could not have children, so Hagar was assigned to have children in Sarai's place. Atwood was smart in using Ofglen, a handmaid, as the narrator of The Handmaid's Tale because...... middle of paper ......s Tale questions the treatment of women in any era in the hope that women will be treated equally to men and it is up to the reader to respond. Works Cited Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. New York: Anchor, 1998. Print. Beauchamp, Gorman. “The Politics of The Handmaid’s Tale.” The Midwest Quarterly 51.1 (2009): 11+ Literary Resource Center. Internet. April 5, 2011. Klarer, Mario. “Orality and Literacy as Gender-Supporting Structures in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.” Mosaic [Winnipeg] 28.4 (1995):129+ Acedemic OneFile. Internet. April 5, 2011.Loveday, Veronica. “Feminism and the Women’s Rights Movement.” Historical reference center. EBSCO, September 30, 2009. Web. April 5, 2011. “No balm in Gilead for Margaret Atwood. » Interview with Mervyn Rothstein. The New York Times. February 17, 1986. Web. April 5, 2011. The Hebrew and Greek Keys Study Bible. Chattanooga, TN: AMG. Print.