One of the basic tenets of modern day feminism is that gender defines our role in society and that only through a process of deconstructing gender roles is it possible to dismantle the factors that lead to the subjugation of women. Ann Snitow, for example, argued that "a common divide [that] keeps forming in both feminist thought and action between the need to build the identity 'woman' and give it solid political meaning and the need to tear down the very category 'woman' and dismantle its all-too-solid history" (9). Jane Austen was a 19th century novelist who attempted the process of dismantling the gender-specific roles defined by her social culture and used characters like Elizabeth Bennett to demonstrate the benefits of social change.

   Austen's 19th century England described in novels like Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice is shaped by social expectations based on gender, and the upper-class communities that Austen evaluates create distinctions in social standing, familial importance, and lineage (inheritance) based on gender. For women like Elinor Dashwood and Elizabeth Bennett, their home and security has been entailed away to male heirs and they must "marry well" in order to a lifestyle. While this defines particular limitations for the main characters of Austen's novels, it also defines limitations in the role of the male characters as well. Men in Jane Austen's 19th century England are also under the directives of social expectations and experience hardship as a result of attempts at maintaining duty and honor. The largest difference, though, is that women had fewer resources and no distinct means of income other than dowries, inheritance or marital assets, and as a result, must determine their financial gains and security through their interactions with men.

   For example, Elizabeth Bennett's father is a man who must encourage the attentions of his cousin, Mr. Collins, towards one of his daughters, in an attempt to maintain the connection with his estate, Longbourn, which Mr. Collins will inherit because of his status as the male heir. It is almost as if Mr. Bennett is a kind of slave trader, providing access to his daughters as a match in marriage that would most likely result in an unhappy match, but would determine the necessary lineage to maintain stability in his home and security for his widow. In Austen's Sense and Sensibility, John Dashwood inherits his father's estate, leaving nothing to his father's widow and his three stepsisters. Even the dashing Mr. Willoughby is negatively impacted by lineage and the dependency on relatives for inheritance, who takes away his inheritance upon discovery of his own improprieties (Sense and Sensibility 283).