After reading the book and talking it over in class, the male roles definitely take over in this book. Although Clarisse and Mildred do play important parts, they aren't the ones taking risks or making changes. I believe that this is mainly because Bradbury wrote this in the 1950's when womens' roles weren't like they are today. I think that Clarisse's part was very important and I liked how she was the one who didn't believe that the world they lived in was always like that. Mildred, on the other hand, was portrayed as a housewife who did nothing but sit in the parlor with the "family". What if Mildred would have been a little more caring or got out of the house more often, just to see what the world was really like? Do you think that Bradbury specifically made Clarisse and Mildred exact opposites? Also, why do you think that there wasn't any women with Granger and the other men "remembering"?

I'd never realized there were no women "remembering" until reading your post. I can't believe I missed that, great observation. Perhaps Bradbury thought women weren't apt to do that kind of thing. Back then women were housewives and mothers. Even the female SF authors of the time used initials or pseudonyms to conceal the fact they were women. Also with the empowerment women were feeling after holding down the homefront and working in factories and such during WWII maybe men were trying to put them back in their "proper" place. It's hard to write a good SF novel built around a housewife. A lot of the SF of that time typically didn't have women in heroic roles. When they did the woman was usually accompanying her husband or brother on an adventure or in the role of assistant or secretary.

Bradbury's wife worked as a waitress so he could write full-time. Contradiction?

The Clarisse character would not have worked as a boy. RB had to have a character to make Montag curious and that had to be someone other than his wife. This person had to provide light where he had always only known darkness. And that person had to be vivacious. Who's more vivacious than a teenage girl?