How does Shakespeare present ideas about gender roles in Macbeth?

Shakespeare disrupts gender roles in the play Macbeth by attributing masculine qualities to female characters and by giving them authoritative roles; this would not have been the norm in Shakespeare's male-dominated society. Lady Macbeth is portrayed as a masculine, authoritative figure, and she criticizes her husband for second-guessing his decision to murder King Duncan. In Lady Macbeth's famous soliloquy, she prays for spirits to reverse her gender by saying,

Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood. Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature’s mischief (Shakespeare, 1.5.30-40).

Lady Macbeth then assumes the dominant role in her relationship and proceeds to give her husband directives after she calls him a coward. Another example of how Shakespeare disrupts gender roles concerns the part that the Three Witches play in the lives of the other characters. The witches resemble men by growing beards and proceed to manipulate Macbeth. Their controlling nature and significant influence is another example of the inverted gender roles depicted in the play.