Sexism has been an immense problem for as long as one can remember, but it was strongest during the time of the 1960’s. Women were especially oppressed when it came to education, and a career. The expectations were set relatively low, as a woman’s stereotypical status was to allot their lives mostly to the family, and partially to the upkeep of their household. Stockett and Cisneros both show that back then, to aspire beyond this was considered completely out of the ordinary, and was deeply frowned upon. Today, sexism still continues, but in different, more discrete ways.
In The Help, there are multiple situations where women are treated as though they are lower class than men, resulting in some characters attempting to break free from these gender roles, in order to become their own individual. Society devalues
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When Skeeter tells Stuart Whitworth about how she wants to become a professional journalist and how she is currently the writer of the domestic maintenance column for the Jackson Journal. “I can’t think of anything worse than reading a column on how to clean house, except maybe writing it,” Stuart says. He follows this with saying, “Sounds like a ploy to me, to find a husband. Becoming an expert on keeping house.” (Stockett 138-139) Skeeter is completely astounded at Stuart’s ignorance at this point, because of how he believes that her aspirations to become a writer are not to quench her ambitions for a career, but to set up somewhat of an application for finding a husband. This is a perfect example of how men believed that they were the hierarchy, and that women should not strive to be anything greater than a man. Skeeter proves to Stuart that to accomplish her dreams, she must start somewhere, in this case, the Jackson Journal. Because people like Stuart