A Christian woman who values moral accountability, she tries to keep her family from sacrificing their ethics in order to achieve. Mama, the ruler of the family, takes a conservative view of the roles of women. Mama, Ruth and Beneatha all have very different perceptions of what it means to be a woman, resulting from their generation gap and individual experiences. While Walter Lee is lost in bouts of elation and depression, it is the women in the family who must try and keep the family together. As the play progresses, Walter becomes so out of touch with reality that he separates himself from his family because of his fluctuating moods. Walter Lee becomes so obsessed with financial wealth that he equates money to be the solution to all life’s problems. His aspirations involve schemes of making money fast. It seems that each the Younger women possess a certain advantage over Walter Lee. As a writer, Hansberry is ahead of her time, challenging an American society that is generally happy to leave women in the kitchen. Since the majority of this play centers around Walter Lee’s struggles to prove his self-worth, it is easy to overlook thought-provoking Hansberry’s portrayal of women. In the time this play is set, being a woman means marrying young, having a low desire for higher education and keeping a house clean for the male provider. Today, owning a house, paying for a child’s education or gaining admittance to medical school is much more accessible than it was for these women.

For the Younger women, their dreams seem farther away than they would in the present for most females.

Hansberry lorraine a raisin in the sun