This piece of political and cultural satire, in the dystopic vein of 'Brave New World' and '1984,' tells of a future society where women exist for breeding purposes only. There are the Marthas, forced to clean house, the chaste wives, allowed on to raise children, and the fertile handmaids, used as broodmares. In Atwood's vision of the anti-feminist future of North America, religious zealots have enforced female subjugation, which becomes a metaphor for all else that is rotten in the Republic of Gilead.
