Household chores and child-rearing are an innate instinct of women who tend to do their best by nature within the family. As a result, the social norm assigns domestic tasks to women because that is what they are best suited to do. The mayor's wife says to Sofia: “All your children so clean, she says, would you like to work for me, be my maid? “(90). The gender norm shows that women will always take care of children rather than men. They should be a maid and a caretaker. Celie says, “She reaches down, grabs a piece of firewood and hits him in the eye” (39). Celie says, “Squeak smacks her on the head. Sofia raises her fist, pulls back, and knocks out two of Squeak's side teeth” (87). This shows that some women are just as violent as men. Celie admires Sofia's boldness in standing up to her husband Harpo's aggressive behavior to force her to become a submissive wife. Through interaction and conversation with Sofia, Celie begins to learn how to defend her from further abuse from her husband. For example, Sofia tells Celie, “But I'll kill him before I let him beat me” (42). Sofia is physically strong with a masculine body. Being a woman herself, she will fight for what she wants. He is more capable than Harpo of sustaining hard physical labor. Sofia is planning to get pregnant to get Albert to commit to her. Harpo beats Sofia for not being submissive because that's how the family works at the time. In fact, he himself is more feminine than masculine in many ways. He is a good cook, likes to take care of and play with children and does not appreciate or do manual labor very well. Harpo finds it very difficult to control his wife because she is very feminist and weak. The use of violence is sanctioned