Misogynistic Pressures in To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Example

Girls all around the world are told they need to be feminine and be a housewife. This has been happening for centuries and it is still happening. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout, a young girl, experiences the ways of the world, and the issues of the world, that she lives in. She is not the typical “girly girl'', and she struggles living in a world that has a certain cookie cutter role that all women must face. Harper Lee argues that girls don’t need to be hyper-feminine or be housewives to be normal or useful to society, and that people have different standards for women than they do for men. 

In chapter 9 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout and her brother and father go to their family’s home for Christmas. The children are using swear words. The boys are allowed to curse and fight as children because they are just learning what is socially acceptable and what is not. They are maturing and experimenting with language and their emotions. But when Scout curses, Uncle Jack says it needs to stop, and when she fights, she is disgracing the family. She needs to be a lady and keep control of her emotions. This shows that the boys in the family are allowed to misbehave and use profanity, but girls must always be on their best behavior. 

In chapter 13 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout’s Aunt Alexandra comes to stay at Scout’s home for a while. She comes to be a feminine influence for Scout, as Scout’s mother died when she was very young. Scout is told she needs to have good manners and wear a dress to be a lady. She is told she needs to learn to cook and stay inside instead of running outside with the boys. This shows how Scout, as a girl, was forced to do things she doesn’t enjoy because of the gender roles that society has. 

In chapter 12 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout is excluded from playing with the boys and is told to “start bein’ a girl and acting right” by Jem. She has to stay inside and learn how to be a typical woman. She cooks and talks with Calpurnia in the house, watching the boys have fun. This shows the restrictions girls have placed on them in society, how they must stay inside and cannot have fun in the same ways as the boys. 

In conclusion, in the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee argues that there are double-standards society has regarding men and women, and that women have certain roles in society they are forced to fulfill. This is shown in the text when the boys are allowed to fight and curse but the girls aren’t, when Aunt Alexandra forces Scout to learn how to cook and clean and be a lady, and when Jem tells Scout to stop playing outside with the boys and to start acting like how a girl should. Harper Lee describes the pressures women face and prejudices society has against them very well. This is a very important message to send as it is still such a prevalent issue today and can be so problematic for the mental health and wellbeing of women.