Student Question
How does Harper Lee explore traditional gender roles in To Kill a Mockingbird?
Quick answer:
Harper Lee explores traditional gender roles through Scout and what other's expect of her as a girl. Scout is a tomboy and resists feminine stereotypes. Jem insults her by calling her a "girl," but as he gets older he starts to believe she should be acting differently to fit her gender role. Aunt Alexandra has a traditional view of how girls should behave, and she thinks Scout should act differently and wear a dress. Attitudes about women also come up in the court room, as the trial is considered inappropriate for ladies.
One way that Harper Lee explores traditional gender roles is in how people expect Scout to behave.
Scout is a tomboy. She prefers overalls to a dress. She likes to play outside. She gets in fist-fights with boys. She is not lady-like. Even though her name, Jean Louise, is feminine, most people call her the more boyish “Scout” instead.
For most of the book, calling Scout a girl is how her brother Jem insults her.
"See there?" Jem was scowling triumphantly. "Nothin' to it. I swear, Scout, sometimes you act so much like a girl it's mortifyin'." (ch 4)
Yet Scout is a girl. Jem seems to forgive her for that most of the time, until she says or does something that he doesn’t like. Then he brings up the girl stereotype.
Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that's why other people hated...
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them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with. (ch 4)
Jem changes his attitude as he gets older, and he starts to feel like Scout should act a certain way, telling her "It's time you started bein' a girl and acting right!" (ch 4).
In fact, everyone tells Scout how she should act. Her aunt thinks she should wear a dress and sit in on parties.
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 to be doing things that required pants. (ch 9)
Aunt Alexandra has the stereotypical view of a girl playing with dolls and tea sets.
There are also examples of society’s attitudes toward women and girls when at the rape trial they want to clear the court-room because the topic is not appropriate for ladies. Atticus also expresses a sexist view of women when explaining to Scout why women can’t serve on juries.
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." (ch 23)
As forward-thinking as Atticus is on matters of race, he is not so on matters of gender.
Yet by presenting us with Scout, Lee gives us hope for change. If all girls acted like Scout, perhaps more women would someday be on juries. Women can be smart and independent.
How are gender roles explored and challenged in To Kill a Mockingbird?
Author Harper Lee is not always kind to the women characters portrayed in To Kill a Mockingbird. The narrator, Scout, is based on Lee herself: She is a tomboy who loves to wear overalls, has no close girl friends, is quick to fight, and prefers the company of boys and men. Scout hates the idea of being "ladylike," and she questions the ladylike qualities of many of the women she meets (ex: the missionary circle tea). Although Scout has been taught by Atticus to treat women as equals to men, many of the unmarried women are presented as strange or as outsiders. Scout comes to respect Calpurnia, who is a strong-willed and educated Negro woman--a rarity in the 1930s Deep South. Scout also bonds with her neighbor, Miss Maudie, a widow with equally independent thought and a sharp tongue. Women in TKAM, however, be they strong or weak, are not equal legally with their male counterparts. They are not allowed to vote or serve on juries, and few of them work, aside from the school teachers and the telephone operator. Women's roles are strongly defined: The working school teachers (all unmarried women) are among the few employed women mentioned; the rest are housewives; or widowed or single, living (presumably) in their family homes with inherited money. Women are second-class citizens in Maycomb, at least for the time being, until children like Scout grow up to make their presence felt.