Gender Issue in Sula

In Sula, the story mostly revolves around the women of Medallion. The role of women in this town seems to be very mundane and insignificant. For Sula, it was hard to live in a place where the men were a step above and had more freedom and rights to do as they pleased. She recalls how "Every man I ever knew left his children" (143). When she begins having sexual affairs with many of the men, she is looked down upon everyone and gets a horrible reputation. She doesn't want to work and be bossed around by anyone, but is reminded by Nel that "You can't do it all. You a woman and a colored woman at that. You can't act like a man. You can't be walking around all independent-like, doing whatever you like, taking what you want, leaving what you don't" (142). Sula doesn't want to be like the rest of the woman who are "Dying. Just like me. But the difference is they dying like a stump. Me, I'm going down like one of those redwoods. I sure did live in this world. (143). It almost seems that to Sula, being a woman is a burden. She feels hindered by being a woman, because she doesn't have as much freedom to be accepted the way she is.