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Scout Finch Sexism

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As individuals in today’s society, we are privileged to not have to endure the prevalent societal differences and sexism that the characters in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, must. The readers, lead by the protagonist, Scout Finch, can truly begin to identify with her observance and simultaneous acceptance and defiance of gender roles. Evidently, Scout grows up with prominent gender roles impacting and influencing her opinion on how each gender “should” and “should not” behave, but when it comes to her behaviour, she does as she pleases. When Scout converses with her male cousin, Francis, about cooking, she laughs upon hearing his uncommon interest of the pastime. To justify her laughter, she retorts, “Boys don’t cook” …show more content…

The jobs that are considered more impactful, such as judges or lawyers, have men filling those positions. This goes to show that the driven women in this time period are redundant objects. When Scout attends her first year of elementary school, she has a female teacher, Miss Caroline; who is introduced in chapter 2. This is the book’s overture on female adults (besides Calpurnia) who do more than sit at home, presumably waiting on their husbands. Miss Caroline teaches basic concepts to young children and that is partly because primary students do not learn complex theories, so hiring an incompetent female teacher would not be a significant problem. Jobs that require extensive knowledge and years of post-secondary education are occupied by men. Scout catches this when she makes a mental remark on how all the courthouse judges are “amiable, white-haired, slightly ruddy faced [men]” (220). The point is, women are not treated as equals, as people even. They are used as a last resort to do the simple work that men wish to be relieved from. The town of Maycomb, Alabama is blatantly inclined to choose men over women and this was not an uncommon choice in the 30s. To a certain extent, Harper Lee was way ahead of her time with this novel; bravely addressing sexism in a manner that was in

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