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In most countries, women only earn between 60 and 75% of men’s wages, for the same work. Sexism is still a problem in today’s society, but it has improved since Scout’s generation in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Scout believes from an early age that girls aren’t good, and that she can avoid the judgement that comes with being a girl by not acting like one. Being a girl for Scout is less a matter of what she's born with and more a matter of what she does. Scout’s elders influence her perception of womanhood by putting preconceived sexist views in her head. In “To Kill a Mockingbird” Harper Lee shows the reader how all women are expected to act lady like and be proper through the actions of Mrs. Dubose, Jem, and Atticus. In Maycomb there are social
Atticus responds by saying, “ I guess it's to protect our frail ladies from sordid cases like Tom's. Besides," Atticus grinned, "I doubt if we'd ever get a complete case tried—the ladies'd be interrupting to ask questions" (296). Jem and Scout react to Atticus’s answer by laughing. Atticus plays into the stereotype that women are weak and frail. Atticus thinks that women do not have the depth to handle a case as depressing as Tom’s. He is making a claim about all women that is not true. He is not teaching Scout how strong a woman can be. Atticus’s comments influence the sexist tone of the conversation. In Maycomb men have the rigorous, and back-breaking jobs that that women “can not” perform. When Atticus said "I doubt if we'd ever get a complete case tried—the ladies'd be interrupting to ask questions" (296) it shows ignorance. Atticus demonstrates basic sexism by assuming ladies cannot keep their comments to themselves in a courtroom. Atticus’s comments confirm Scout’s thoughts that girls are weak and not as good as boys. Overall, the reader can connect sexist issues in “To Kill a Mockingbird” to the present day world. Women are still expected to follow rules that society has set for them. Advertisements with unrealistic beauty standards are shown millions of times everyday. Women are still expected to stay at home and cook and clean while men go to work. Scout is a very brave girl who is
After the jury decided that Tom would be sentenced to death Jem and Scout are confused why “you never see anybody from Maycomb on a jury-they all come from the woods” (221 Lee)” Atticus honestly answers,”For one thing, Miss Maudie can't serve on a jury because she's a woman-’ Scout says ‘You mean women in Alabama can't-?’" (221 Lee) Scout believes that men and women are equal and aren’t smarter than one another. Normally women or girls don’t question if they can be on a jury or not, they just accept it. However, Scout breaks gender roles by questioning why someone can’t be on a jury just because of their gender. She’s in awe when she realizes someone as smart as Miss Maudie can’t be in the jury just because she’s a woman. Jem and Scout first meet the 7 year old Charles “Dill” Baker Harris reading a book at his Aunt Rachel’s house. Dill introduces himself and that he can read and if Jem needed anything to be read he can do it for him. That caused him to show off his little sister. “Scout yonder's been readin’ ever since she was born and she ain’t even started school yet (7 Lee)” In the south during the 1930s women weren’t expected to read. School wasn’t supposed to care or be the focus. They were supposed to have other things on their minds like how the look, making sure they act like a proper lady and being able to cook.
Sexism greatly affects Scout's future in To Kill A Mockingbird. Jem frequently tells her that she "acts more like a girl every day," and means this as an insult. Both Scout and Jem want Scout to act more like a traditional boy in their town, and any sign of fear, vulnerability, or a supposedly feminine trait is looked down upon. Scout is expected to grow up, become a lady, marry, and start a family. She should wear dresses, not overalls. She should learn to cook and clean. If she does get a full educatio...
While the women in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird come in a variety of personalities and backgrounds, all of their lives are led by one constricting factor; their gender. Scout's upbringing as a young woman greatly contrasts that of her brother Jem. Jem is educated as a young boy growing into a man while Scout’s journey is taken as a woman. The manacle of womanhood is but a concept if one does not consider the harsh faults and inhibiting limits of men or rather the struggle for “masculinity” that men are similarly constrained. Though she is repeatedly told to have ladylike manners and to dress in more feminine way, Scout mostly denies this norm but is still able to become a young
In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the story is told by a young girl called Jean-Louise Finch but also known as Scout aged five at the start of the book almost turning six who in the book is quite unique as she could read at the age of six and understand her fathers profession as a lawyer. The story is about Scout growing up in the southern state of Alabama in a small town called Maycomb with her brother Jem and her father called Atticus who is the lawyer. The main theme of the book is about Atticus defending a black man called Tom Robinson and he is accused of raping a white girl called Mayella Ewell and how it affects her, in the book she learns about racism and prejudice and the struggle of black men in life and she also learns about the ways of life and family traditions. The book is set in the late 1930’s so racial discrimination is at its peak in the southern states of America.
Later though, we see him slip up in terms of gender stereotypes. It is a very short moment, but it says a lot about him that he says it in passing as a joke. He says: “‘Miss Maudie can’t serve on a jury because she’s a woman--’...’I doubt if we’d ever get a complete case tried--the ladies’d be interrupting to ask questions’” (Lee 252). Here he is basically saying that the women would not be able to understand the events of the trial. He is generalizing an entire gender by a destructive stereotype. This is very out of character because we have never seen this sort of behavior in Atticus before. Atticus, this progressive, accepting person who has never seen gender as any sort of barrier or issue before, suddenly shows a different side. Atticus, the man who talks to Miss Maudie like any other man, treats Calpurnia with utmost respect, and allows Scout to wear overalls and play in the mud plunders head first into stereotypes. This event struck me as so odd because Atticus seemed so progressive in a sense of his time. He treats the women of the community as equals and respects them. He and Miss Maudie seem to be close friends and always in contact. He is shown as conversing with her more than he is shown with anyone else; “Atticus strolled over to Miss Maudie’s sidewalk, where they engaged in an arm-waving conversation” (Lee 77). In this simple detail, we can see a
One way Harper Lee develops gender inequity through stereotypes is through Scout’s experiences with the women in Maycomb. Scout is laughed at for wearing pants under her dress. Scout prefers pants over dresses because she’s a tomboy and can be more active in “britches.” On Sunday, Scout dressed up, but still had pants under her dress. When Scout is at the gathering with the women, Miss Maudie says, “‘You’re mighty dressed up, Miss Jean Louise,’ she said. ‘Where are your britches today?’ ‘Under my dress.’ I hadn’t meant to be funny, but the ladies laughed. My cheeks grew hot as I realized my mistake” (Lee 307). Because Scout is laughed at for wearing pants and not for something she thought was funny, she feels singled out and degraded. The ladies of Maycomb laughed at her because she had done something “wrong” in their eyes. She wore pants
The Southern women were told and obligated, by some code of southern conduct, to mature into fair-smelling, perfect "ladies." By "ladies" they meant women who were well mannered, good at embroidery, and wore frilly, lacy dresses. One example of this southern tradition occurs when Aunt Alexandra comes to the Finch residence to help Atticus raise his children during the trial. When first arriving she says to Scout, "We decided that it would be best for you to have some feminine influence. It won't be many years, Jean Louise, before you become interested in clothes and boys." This comment implies that the only subjects girls are expected to understand are boys and clothes. Aunt Alexandra makes no mention of Jean Louise's intelligence, education, or personality. Her diction suggests that the only thing Jean Louise is capable of pursuing is her attire and a man. Scout discovers what a "southern lady" is as she notices how Aunt Alexandra "chose protective garments that drew up her bosom to giddy heights, pinched in her waist, flared out her rear, and managed to suggest that Aunt Alexandra's was once an hour-glass figure." Scout was considered to be very improper, wearing overalls and pants, but Aunt Alexandra would still try and introduce her to other ladies. I assume that she did this to try and influence Scout. She hoped Scout would form lady-like habits by watching others. Another example takes place after the trial, when Jem is appalled at the decision the court makes in response to Tom Robinson's case.
This quote is significant because it shows the gender roles that is used in the Finches home. After Aunt Alexandra came over to visit for a few weeks/months, many gender roles were changed. Aunt Alexandra felt like the head of the house, because she is trying to put the pride of the family back in her brother’s house. She was so consisted of changing the roles in the house. She wanted Scout to become the girl that every female should be, and wanted the family pride to once come alive in Maycomb, after Atticus made the decision of helping a black man. In her time period, female were discriminated and man were superior to women. Women were well educated back during the Great Depression, but wasn’t that superior to the men because they didn’t had their rights back there.
Scout is one of the characters in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, who challenged the 1930’s society. Scout is a young girl, who is entering the world where society is harsh and manipulative specially in the 1930’s. Scout lost her mother a few years after she was born; therefore she didn't have a “socially acceptable” role model to follow in the eyes of her society. Scout was allowed to wear overalls, although overalls were not correct clothing for her gender. Scout wondered if wearing “boy-clothes” was bad by questioning “It had something to do with my going around in overalls” (Lee 108). She was mortifying herself by having all those thoughts of whether or not she was doing the right thing, even though she had no idea what was really expected of her. Atticus was another character who challenged society by doing what was right; however his social circle didn't think of his
It takes a village to raise a child, whether that child be a motherless caucasian girl in Alabama, or a poor black child living in squalor in a foreign land. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee describes the experiences of Scout, an impressionable young tomboy. Scout is without a real mother; she looks to women in the Maycomb community to help her define what it means to be female. Her concept of womanhood develops as she interacts with several women who foster her welfare and growth. The most influential women in Scout’s life are Aunt Alexandra, Miss Maudie, and Calpurnia. Other female characters, including the ladies of the Missionary Circle, influence Scout’s conceptualization of womanhood, but not always in a nurturing, helpful way .
The Gender roles in society have greatly changed throughout the years of America from puritan women who thought that showing skin was undoubtedly a sin from the flapper era in american history that welcomed the idea of women showing more of their sexuality. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird which depict the events that occur when a white man who defends an african american man during the era of the great depression and what results from the story. Gender roles are a prevalent theme in the story. Through the characters dialogue and Scout's narration, Miss Maudie is characterized as a modern women while aunt Alexandra is characterized by her adherence to tradition.
Sexism is not as common a topic in comparison to racism, but does play a role in the development of the novel. This type of discrimination is expressed towards women from men and women alike. Men feel compelled to protect women from unsightly things, (Lee 221), and the women in Maycomb have the mind set that, to be a lady, they must conform to society's expectations of them. They believe they must dress, act, and speak a certain way to appease the community. Aunt Alexandra is a big believer in acting the way society expects her to and attempts to impose these values on her niece, Scout, who becomes mortified, as she has always been a tomboy and prefers spending time in the dirt. “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my [Scout's] attire. She said I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn't supposed ...
Even though many social forces impact Scout in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, gender impacts Scout the greatest. It affects her in how other people treat her. Unexpectedly, Aunt Alexandra shows up at the Finch household, and Scout asks why she had just shown up. Aunt Alexandra replies, “We decided that it would be good for you to have some feminine influence. It won’t be many years, Jean Louise, before you become interested in clothes and boys” (127). After Alexandra says this, Scout becomes puzzled because she does not think she needs a “feminine influence”. But, as she becomes older she is expected to act more lady like. Since she is a girl, she is expected to act prim and proper. Her being raised around men is acting against these stereotypes. Certainly, it is obvious that boys are more daring than girls. So while Jem and Dill want to get a sneak peak inside of Boo Radley’s house, Scout gets a little apprehensive. Jem shouts out, “Scout I’m telling you for the last time shut your trap or go home. I declare to the lord you’re getting more like a girl every day,” (51-52). After Jem said this, she decides she has no option but to join them. She does...
The theme of the novel is that the world contains evil and good. Scout and Jem represent innocence, and how they have never really witnessed evil until the trial starts.Since the novel was placed in the 30s the reader can clearly see the gender inequality that is interpreted throughout the novel. Gender inequality is where a gender gets treated differently based on what gender they are, and how they are “suppose” to act. During the depression era women were not as high profile as men, and they were meant to stay at home and handle the household duties. If they were to get a job they were not paid as much, and not treated as high priority or a-list positions. In the novel Jem often offends Scout because she complains or whines. “I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that's why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with”(Lee 41). Scout did not want to play the game where they reenact Arthur Radley’s life, and Jem says she is acting like a girl. It's almost as if she is only like a girl when she acts a certain way, but not the fact that she was born a girl. Scout does whatever she can to keep from being called a girl. Mrs. Dubose also comments about Scout being a girl, and how
Harper Lee provides the reader with several examples of typical Maycomb females. She establishes Scout's masculinity with fighting and explains her demeanor by contrasting it with the typical female adults of the novel. The author also allows Jean Louise to wear masculine clothing and gives her a manly nickname. Therefore, the author favors Scout's unique personality and implies women do not have to act in a stereotypical manner. The book might inspire young girls to become independent and create their own unique personalities. To Kill a Mockingbird emerges as an important novel that contradicts female society and suggests that girls should not feel pressure to act in scripted "womanly" roles.