Gender Roles In To Kill A Mockingbird

Often women are expected to act differently to men, due to long established traditions and ideas. Harper Lee’s 1960 bildungsroman, To Kill a Mockingbird explores and focuses on this issue in the 1930s. The gender roles are clearly shown by the patriarchal society in the novel, as only men have the important jobs, as well as them making derogatory comments about women. The narrator of the novel, Scout, is portrayed as a very masculine character, through her actions and clothes, as well as her trying to be a lady, but never quite fitting in. Many male, as well as some female, characters tell Scout off for her boyish ways, this shows that even though a lot of people disapprove her ways, she still chooses to live the way she is most comfortable.

Most of the men in the novel have the important jobs in the town, such as Atticus being a lawyer. On the other hand, most of the women aren’t known by their jobs, and are mainly seen through Scout visiting them in their houses or around town. Page 160 and 166 show this, as just all the men from the town go to deal with Tom Robinson, first discussing his stay in the jail, then trying to kill him, while the majority of the women stay at home cooking, like Calpurnia, or gardening and baking like Miss Maudie. This juxtaposes men and women’s roles and their importance to the town, as the women stay at home all day while the men deal the with all of the problems. On page 244, Atticus responds to Scout’s question about there being no women on the jury with “it’s to protect our frail ladies from sordid cases like Tom’s.” This shows that even Atticus, one of the few men in the town who is more open

Alexandra often gets angry at Scout for acting like a boy. On page 249, Jem is explaining why she got angry: “She’s trying to make you a lady. Can’t you take up sewin’ or something?” This shows that Jem thinks that if Scout starts sewing, she would become less interested in boy’s activities. Similarly, Alexandra argues with Scout, telling her she should only be doing activities she can wear a dress with. Jem, on the other hand, often tells Scout she is becoming more of a girl, as a bad thing. On page 45, Jem calls Scout a girl and “that’s why other people hated them so…I could just go off and find some to play with.” On many other occasions, when Scout is unsure, Jem tells her to go away and play with girls. As a result, Scout seems more determined to prove him wrong, and often does things she isn’t comfortable doing, such as rolling in the tire that ends up hitting the Radley’s house. However, Jem also tells Scout off, similarly to Alexandra, and tells her to act more like a girl, and she goes crying to Calpurnia and helps her in the kitchen, and learns that there is “some skill involved in being a girl.” Even though Scout should know better, she laughs at Francis when he says “all men should learn to cook.” Through this sentence Lee shows that even though there are many things that women are judged for doing, men have their own