<P> African Americans, the main non-white ethnic group in this society, are called the Children of Ham . A state TV broadcast mentions they have been relocated en masse to "National Homelands" in the Midwest, which are suggestive of the Apartheid - era homelands set up by South Africa . Roman Catholics are only briefly mentioned: nuns who refuse conversion are considered "Unwomen" and banished to the Colonies, owing to their reluctance to marry and refusal (or inability) to bear children . Priests unwilling to convert are executed and hanged from the Wall . Jews are called Sons of Jacob, also the name of the fundamentalist group that rules the Republic of Gilead . Offred observes that Jews refusing to convert are allowed to emigrate to Israel, and most choose to leave . However, in the Epilogue, Professor Pieixoto reveals that many of the emigrating Jews ended up being dumped into the sea while on the ships ostensibly tasked with transporting them to Israel, due to privatization of the "repatriation program" and capitalists' effort to maximize profits . Offred mentions that many Jews who chose to stay were caught secretly practicing Judaism and executed . </P> <P> The sexes are strictly divided . Gilead's society values reproduction by white women most highly . Women are categorised "hierarchically according to class status and reproductive capacity" as well as "metonymically colour - coded according to their function and their labour" (Kauffman 232). The Commander expresses the prevailing opinion that women are considered intellectually and emotionally inferior to men . </P> <P> Women are segregated by clothing, as are men . With rare exception, men wear military or paramilitary uniforms, which takes away their individualism as it does the women, but also gives them a sense of bravado and empowerment . All classes of men and women are defined by the colours they wear (as in Aldous Huxley's dystopian Brave New World), drawing on colour symbolism and psychology . All lower - status individuals are regulated by this dress code . All non-persons are banished to the "Colonies" (usually forced - labor camps in which they clean up radioactive waste, becoming exposed and dying painful deaths as a result). Sterile, unmarried women are considered to be non-persons . Both men and women sent there wear grey dresses . </P> <P> Six main categories of "legitimate" women make up mainstream society . Two chief categories of "illegitimate" women live outside of mainstream society: </P>

Who played nick in the handmaid's tale