Margaret Atwood's novel Alias ​​Grace, nominated for the Arthur Ellis Prize for Best Novel, depicts a 16-year-old girl convicted of murdering her employer and of her lover in conspiracy with James McDerrmott. James McDermott is put to death by hanging, but Grace is taken to prison because she is of the "weaker sex." This reflects the construction of femininity and masculinity in the mid-to-late 19th century. A social problem of the Victorian era was that women were treated as subordinate to men. Queen Victoria said: “Victorian gender ideology was based on the belief that women were both physically and intellectually the inferior sex” (YILDIRIM). Women were considered highly susceptible to mental illness due to this belief. Women were only supposed to be “housewives.” The novel Alias ​​Grace accurately shows the construction of this gender identity through society, sexuality, and emotion while also questioning it through Grace's mother and Mrs. Humphrey. Society shows the stereotypical Victorian era way of thinking: women are subordinate to men. This can be seen through Mary Whitney. Mary Whitney explains to Grace what her goals should be and how she should act: "It was a custom for young girls in this country to hire themselves out, in order to earn money for their dowry, and then they married, and if their husbands proposed that they would soon hire their own servants in turn and that they would then be "the mistress of a tidy and independent farm" (Atwood 182). Mary Whitney explains to Grace that a woman must marry to succeed. This was the gender construct of the time, and she tries to convince Grace to take on this role. This is very true middle of paper through Grace's mother and Mrs. Humphrey. The novel depicts this construction of gender identity through society by making Grace believe that women are subordinate and must marry and be good housewives to succeed. This construct is seen through emotion, as emotional women are considered “abnormal” and sent to asylums, while men were expected to have the power to do so. The societal construction of gender identity was seen as such that men should rejoice in their sexuality and be assertive, while women should be passive and suppress their sexuality. Ms. Humphrey challenged this construction because she was authoritarian and the instigator. Finally, the societal construction of gender identity was challenged by Grace's mother as she assumed the masculine position of caregiver. Overall, women were seen as subordinate to men during the Victorian era and Atwood challenged this belief..