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Gender
Not only is gender an important theme to The Shoemaker’s Holiday, but the way it is presented is also very prevalent and crucial to understanding the sexism within the play. Most predominantly the theme of gender and sex revolves around the character Margery. Margery endures constant verbal abuse, even though she is arguably contributing the most to the family business and the insurance of its success. From the beginning Margery frowns on hiring Lacy, proposes to replace the workers who threaten to quit, doesn’t want the staff to take off for the holiday, supports her husbands rise to sheriff and then mayor (even while being verbally abused and pushed out of most of the discussion), and is silenced and banished from the business deal with the Dutch merchant.

Women in literature at the time tended to be portrayed as “covetous” or “sneaky and greedy” in order to achieve their goals, when Margery represents quite the opposite, yet is treated just as badly. Margery is reduced to the female stereotype of “the talkative woman”. Yet she fights the stereotype of the “consumer’s wife” with her disinterest of nice things. Margery doesn’t want the nice clothing given to her with the rise of her social station; her new clothes come not from her wanting it, but rather from a social necessity and expectation that highlights another gender double standard within The Shoemaker’s Holiday. The character Jane-as a female shop owner-is even seen as a “commodity” when visited by Hammon who quite literally tries to buy Jane, asking "How sell you this hand?" Later when Jane’s husband Ralph returns, Hammon again tries to buy Jane, this time from Ralph himself: “dost thou think a shoemaker is so base to be bawd to his own wife for commodity? Take thy gold and choke with it! Were I not lame, I would make thee eat thy words.”