The Female Meursault

What if Meursault was a women? How drastically would "her" circumstances have changed if Meursault had been a female in the eyes of society. Camus wrote "The Stranger," with the perspective of the 1940's era: the world viewed women as weaker and less significant creatures. In the story, the female characters were written to be the play things and punching bags of the men surrounding them, and lacked any substance in their personalities or mental capabilities. They had no backbone and their role was to please the men that were interested. Would Camus have been able to write with enough depth and detail to capture the essence and inner workings of a female Meursault? Honestly, I don't think he would have. Based on what we have learned about Camus and Meursault, I have seen a great deal of similarities between the two men. Camus was able to create this complex and conflicted character because he could take from personal experience. But if Meursault had been a women, Camus would not have been able to illustrate how society would treat a women because he had no idea. He could have written it from the perspective of society, but then the reader wouldn't have been able to understand how the woman was thinking and feeling. The novel would lack the depth Camus had been able to achieve with Meursault.