Unwoman

Unwoman is the official Gileadean classification for women deemed unfit for the regime's reproductive hierarchy, a label that strips them of personhood and condemns them to forced labor in the toxic Colonies. The term operates as a tool of social death, marking those who have failed to bear children, who have resisted the system, or who have simply outlived their usefulness. It represents the ultimate threat held over every Handmaid, a fate worse than the constrained existence they endure within the Commander's household.

Definition and Social Function

The category of Unwoman is defined negatively: it encompasses women who do not or cannot fulfill the regime's sole sanctioned female role—that of a fertile vessel for procreation within the state church. The term is applied to Handmaids who have exhausted their three chances to bear a live child, to those who have been caught in sexual transgressions, and to women who resist the system, such as Moira after her escape attempt. The label also covers older, infertile, or unmarried women who cannot be placed as Wives, Marthas, or Aunts. As Aunt Lydia explains, the Unwomen in the Colonies spend their time "cleaning up"—burning bodies after battles, working in toxic dumps and radiation spills where they have "three years maximum" before their "nose falls off and your skin pulls away like rubber gloves." The regime does not bother to feed them much or provide protective clothing, as "it's cheaper not to." The threat of becoming an Unwoman is used to enforce compliance: when the doctor propositions Offred, he warns that he could "fake the tests, report me for cancer, for infertility, have me shipped off to the Colonies, with the Unwomen."

The Colonies as Destination

The Colonies are the physical destination for Unwomen, described as portable populations used mainly as expendable toxic-cleanup squads. The regime shows Handmaids propaganda films about life in the Colonies to terrify them into obedience. Moira, after her recapture, is shown such a film and reports that the Colonies include "the toxic dumps and the radiation spills" where workers die within three years, as well as sites where women burn bodies after battles. There are also agricultural Colonies for cotton picking and fruit harvesting, but these are reserved for the less condemned. The Colonies are also where older women disappear to—as Offred notes, "You don't see that many old women around anymore"—and where Handmaids who have "screwed up their three chances" are sent. The regime performs sterilization operations on Unwomen sent to the Colonies, ensuring "there won't be any mistakes."

Narrative and Thematic Significance

The Unwoman category functions as the regime's ultimate mechanism of control through fear. Every Handmaid knows that failure to conceive, any violation of the strict codes governing her body, or even the suspicion of resistance can result in reclassification and shipment to the Colonies. The term embodies the regime's reduction of women to their reproductive function: those who cannot or will not serve that function are not merely punished but are defined out of existence as women. Offred's mother, glimpsed in a propaganda film about the Colonies, represents the personal horror of this fate—a woman who once marched for women's rights now reduced to sweeping deadly toxins. The category also reveals the regime's intersection of gender and racial oppression: the "Children of Ham" are resettled in National Homeland One, and Jewish people are given the choice to convert or emigrate, while those who resist are executed. The Unwoman designation thus serves as a warning that the regime's "freedom from" choice, as Aunt Lydia phrases it, comes at the cost of absolute conformity or annihilation.