Creon vs. Antigone or Male vs. Female?

In Sophocles Antigone, the title character's gender has profound effects on the meaning of her actions. Creon himself says that the need to defeat her is all the more pressing because since she is a woman her rebellion upsets gender roles and hierarchy. By refusing to be passive, she overturns one of the fundamental rules of her culture. Women were subjugated and supposed to be silent spectators to the world around them as men's, such …

…the pleas of his son to let Antigone live. Creon believes that if he changes his decree, his subjects will see him as a weak ruler, therefore he is unwilling to listen to the reasoning of his son. Stubbornness ultimately leads to their downfall. The bold, tradition-braking character of Antigone clearly clashed with the ovepowered, male dominant personality of Creon. This collision of character gave rise to the conflict between the sexes in Sophocles' Antigone.