Women Cannot Drive or Hold Jobs

Women Cannot Drive or Hold Jobs is a core legal prohibition in the Republic of Gilead that enforces the regime's doctrine of separate spheres for men and women. By barring women from employment and from operating vehicles, the law strips them of economic autonomy, physical mobility, and any public role, confining them to the domestic sphere under the authority of a male next of kin. This restriction is not merely a social custom but a codified rule backed by the state's coercive apparatus, as demonstrated by the immediate arrest and property seizure that accompanied its enactment.

Legal Codification and Enforcement

The prohibition was imposed at the very moment of Gilead's consolidation of power. During the coup that followed the Sons of Jacob attack on Congress, a state of emergency was declared, and within days new laws were passed that abolished the Constitution and declared that women's money now belonged to the male next of kin. As Aunt Lydia recalls, her colleague Katie discovered that her bank card and credit cards had been cancelled when she tried to buy a plane ticket; the airline informed her that the provisional government had just passed these laws. Women like Aunt Lydia, who had no male next of kin, were left destitute and vulnerable. The rule was enforced by armed men who entered workplaces, read names from lists, and physically removed women—such as the pregnant judge Katie, who was taken to a "high school"—while others were sorted into categories like "box store" or "stadium" for processing. This legal framework made it impossible for women to hold jobs, drive cars, or control their own finances, effectively criminalizing female independence.

Ideological Justification

The prohibition is justified through Gilead's religious and patriarchal ideology, which teaches that women are naturally suited to domestic life and incapable of the intellectual demands of public work. At the Vidala School, girls are taught that men have "something in their heads that was like fingers, only a sort of fingers girls did not have," and that it would be "like trying to teach a cat to crochet" for a woman to understand men's work. Aunt Vidala instructs that men's brains are capable of "thinking large thoughts," while women's smaller brains are unfit for such matters. The regime frames female employment and driving as not only impractical but sinful, since women who work or drive would inevitably tempt men through their presence in public spaces. The ideology of the "precious flower"—a girl who must be kept safely inside a glass house to protect her from the ravenous men who lurk in the world—reinforces the idea that women belong at home, shielded from the dangers of public life.

Consequences for Women

The practical effect of this rule is the total economic and physical dependency of women on men. Women cannot earn their own living, own property, or travel independently. When Aunt Lydia is arrested, she is told that her money now belongs to her male next of kin—but she has none, leaving her with nothing. The rule also means that women who attempt to flee Gilead or work for resistance organizations like Mayday must do so in secret, using underground networks like the Underground Femaleroad. The prohibition on driving is so absolute that even the Aunts, who hold considerable power within the women's sphere, do not drive themselves; they are driven by Guardians. The rule is a cornerstone of Gilead's system of control, ensuring that women remain dependent, isolated, and unable to organize or escape without male assistance.

Narrative Significance

In The Testaments, the prohibition on women driving and holding jobs serves as a key marker of the regime's totalitarian nature and its systematic oppression of women. It is one of the first rules that the reader encounters through the eyes of Daisy (Nicole), who learns about it in school as part of her education about Gilead's horrors. The rule also shapes the lives of the three narrators: Aunt Lydia, who was a judge before the coup and lost her career and independence overnight; Agnes Jemima, who grows up knowing she will never work or drive; and Nicole, who is shocked by the restriction when she enters Gilead. The rule is ultimately challenged by the resistance, as Nicole and Agnes escape Gilead using a car driven by a Mayday operative, and Nicole's mother works as a Mayday intelligence agent—both acts that directly violate the prohibition. The rule thus becomes a symbol of the regime's injustice and a target for the resistance that seeks to overthrow it.