How is the issue of gender portayed in Shakespeare's Macbeth?

The issue of gender in Macbeth is important for two
reasons.

An example of one reason is where Lady Macbeth
asks the spirits to "unsex" her.

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Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal
thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe topful
(I.iv.40-42)

Here, Lady
Macbeth makes her wishes to be a man known to readers. She knows that it is the man who
holds the power and not the woman.

A reference to the other
reason is the prophecy Macbeth recieves from the second apparition, which is a bloody
child.

The
power of man, for none of women born/ Shall harm Macbeth
(IV.i.84-85)

This line shows
that women, again, have no power. She knows that, as a woman, she needs to be
thicker-skinned. She recognizes that only men are thick-skinned enough to battle for
power.  Therefore, she asks the spirits to "unsex" her, or make her male, so that she
can have enough power to do what needs to be done.