In literature class, we read a story called "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl. The story is about a woman who, after receiving news about her husband leaving her, decides to club him in the back of the head with a frozen lamb leg. The main thing I took away from this story is that, while we were beginning to read the story, everyone in the class thought that it would be the husband that would do something bad to the wife, not the other way around. This got me thinking about the way that men and women are perceived. Women are typically perceived as the victim, while men are seen as the attacker. This story does a good job of setting everything up to make it seem like the husband would be the evildoer, when in reality, the wife was the crazy one. In literature, this is called situational irony. This is when you think something will happen one way, but it turns out to be the opposite. An example of this can be found in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery", when you think that the winner of the lottery will be rewarded, but it turns out that the winner gets stoned to death.
Many literary pieces portray the woman as the "damsel in distress", which isn't a very positive stereotype. It shows women as helpless creatures, useless without their male counterparts. This story defies that trope, setting the story up as a woman who depends on her husband for everything, but in reality, she controls almost every aspect of her life. Her house is perfect, she sits and watches the clock in a relaxed manner, and she has a baby on the way. This is what makes the story so shocking when she murders her husband. She isn't the typical housewife, at least until after she kills the man she loves, she's a woman who is capable of making her own decisions. She's a strong, independent woman who don't need no man. But that doesn't mean that she was justified in her murderous ways. All this means is that you don't need to have a stereotypical helpless woman character in your story. It is entirely possible to have an interesting female character who doesn't need to rely on her husband.
Many literary pieces portray the woman as the "damsel in distress", which isn't a very positive stereotype. It shows women as helpless creatures, useless without their male counterparts. This story defies that trope, setting the story up as a woman who depends on her husband for everything, but in reality, she controls almost every aspect of her life. Her house is perfect, she sits and watches the clock in a relaxed manner, and she has a baby on the way. This is what makes the story so shocking when she murders her husband. She isn't the typical housewife, at least until after she kills the man she loves, she's a woman who is capable of making her own decisions. She's a strong, independent woman who don't need no man. But that doesn't mean that she was justified in her murderous ways. All this means is that you don't need to have a stereotypical helpless woman character in your story. It is entirely possible to have an interesting female character who doesn't need to rely on her husband.