To Kill A Mockingbird Feminist Analysis

During The Great Depression, people treated women very unfairly and they were not given the credit they deserved, with how much they worked while trying to keep up with all of their imperfections in society. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, explores the ideas that go through Jean Louise (Scout) Finch’s mind as she, herself, is becoming a woman. “‘Are you--’ [Mrs. Dubose] pointed an arthritic finger at me-- ‘what are you doing in those overalls? You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady! You’ll grow up waiting on tables if somebody doesn’t change your ways--a Finch waiting on tables at the O.K. Cafe--hah?’” (Lee 135). Scout is a young girl growing up in a prejudice society that is very quick to judge her. She may not be …show more content…
If so, they would work during the night. In the novel, Scout and Jem do not a have a mother so this requires their father to help out more than a male usually would: “I know now what he was trying to do but Atticus was only a man. It takes a woman to do that kind of work” (Lee 179). Atticus was doing his best to live up to what a female would do, but it was very hard for him. Women worked long and hard hours to keep up with their family’s needs and still had to work during the night to help provide money for their household. Sometimes women worked up to twenty hour days: “At twelve thirty sharp we have our dinner… one washes and irons here every week. On Saturday one cooks also for Sundays, windows are cleaned, the rugs are sprinkled over with tea leaves and swept clean…” (Weatherford 164). Frequently, women had to do more than a day’s work of housework in 24 hours because they had other jobs to attend during the night. It would sometimes be very difficult for women to find work because of their lack of skill and experience. Sometimes women would go up to a year without work. In Women’s Place in the American Labor Force, Margaret Walsh states that “When women moved out of the home to find gainful employment occupational choice was, and remains, limited by cultural expectation, lack of skills and male prejudice” (9). Males seized all of the good paying jobs and left nothing good for women to choose from. Men were …show more content…
They cannot make one mistake without making a bad reputation for themselves. Women can and cannot do lots of things because of their gender. Although it has gotten better over time, social taboos have been a major factor in all of women’s life. These restrictions strictly affect young girls: “Aunt Alexandra’s vision of my deportment involved playing with small stoves, tea sets, and wearing the Add-A-Pearl necklace she gave when I was born…” (Lee 108). Aunt Alexandra has judged Scout for as long as she has been alive and Atticus has been taking care of her. Girls were expected to act and dress like proper ladies at all times. According to Foreign and Female: Immigrant Women in America, 1840-1930, “Most children casually ‘played about the streets or homes’” (Weatherford 173). Lots of children played outside in non-proper clothing. Some not-so-poor families were not as lucky as others to buy these certain types of clothing such as patterned dresses. Women were also not allowed to work outside the home or initiate a divorce. The male had to say when he wanted to quit the marriage, which rarely happened. Women often did not want to be forced out of a marriage because of their beliefs: “Religious prohibitions, fear of dealing with American courts, the expense, and the likelihood that she could lose custody of her child in an era when courts gave automatic preference to men -- all of these combined to