How does Steinbeck represent attitudes to women through the character of Curley's wife?

Curley’s wife is the only major female character in ‘Of Mice and Men’, and as such, she represents all women in Steinbeck’s novella about the futility of the American Dream. Her lack of identity outside of her husband is something that plagues her, as she is given no name aside that of ‘Curley’s wife’, yet she tells Lennie of her hopes and aspirations to be an actress. Insodoing, Steinbeck makes it apparent that he is portraying the limitations of women with this character, and not his own personal attitude toward them.
The symbolism of the colour red is described so often to us that it is difficult for the reader to untangle Curley’s wife from her identity as an almost literal ‘scarlet woman’. She is portrayed, through this colour, as salacious, tantalising to the men but also dangerous, a women that to pursue would be to invite great danger, owing to the imagery of her cutting off the light from outside as she enters the room where the men reside. Here, we see the foreshadowing of Lennie’s untimely end owing to his murder of Curley’s wife.