Women's Roles In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

Women of the 1930’s went through many social struggles, expectations, and hardships. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird displays an accurate depiction of how women were treated and expected to act. The decline in jobs and money in the Great Depression did not get rid of the traditional gender roles that have been long forgotten in modern time. Unattainable standards were handed to women, such as being expected to act like ‘proper ladies’ in a society run by men. Being a women in this time meant enduring unjust oppression, with social expectations, family roles, and fashion all impacting the image of a woman.
Women were expected to live up to the social expectations that were set in stone for them. A woman had to act what was established as
A woman would stay home to care for the children, and do the cooking and cleaning, while a man would go out and financially support the family. Harper Lee writes, “Jem parceled out our roles: I was Mrs. Radley, and all I had to do was come out and sweep the porch” (39). Even children are influenced by the standards and roles of a woman in the household. The children’s reenactment of their image of the Radley’s lives reflect the ideal roles for a woman in the house. The male was the breadwinner in a family, meaning they provided the financial support. Whereas the wife would usually stay in the house to raise the children, clean, cook, work in the garden, and have social gatherings with other women in the neighborhood. Their roles, however, often were underappreciated and overlooked. Men were essentially those who ran the household, but the women served as the foundation to keep the family together. Susan Ware writes, “Forced to take on even more important roles in their homes and families, women played often unrecognized roles in helping the country through the Great Depression” (1). In the To Kill a Mockingbird scene, Scout is assigned the roles of the ladies where she only has to sweep the porch or clean the house. Compared to Jem and Dill’s roles, their roles in the game are more prominent. This is because Scout is a girl. All through the book she experiences sexism and stereotypes, some by her own brother. These stereotypes and generic, sexist tasks that were given to women were not considered disrespectful, degrading, or objectifying. It was normal for the woman in a family to do “easier” jobs, as she was too fragile to go out in work like a man. These roles were seen as easy and fit for a woman, but they went uncredited and downsized to simple, feminine tasks. Not all women had a male breadwinner in the family, however. Many who were widowed,