In this play, women are expected to behave a certain way and accept a certain amount of control and abuse from their husbands if they do not behave or conduct themselves in a "womanly" fashion. Also, men in this play are expected to maintain the upper hand, so to speak, in their relationships. Both genders have roles to play and both genders could suffer repercussions if they do not conform to society's expectations of what it means to be a man/ woman.
To better understand what is and was expected of women, I asked that you all create a Venn Diagram illustrating the differences and similarities between expectations of the genders from Elizabethan society to modern society. To complete this task, you all needed to search for information about gender roles in Elizabethan England and compare/ contrast this information to today's expectations. Here is a sample of your work (click on the image to make it larger):
