Women in the Great Depression Era

This articles helps me understand the background of the story, the things that were going on during the period of time that this story took place. Some similar situations from the article are that women are starting to take on new roles, involvement in sport activities as this story was placed during the Great Depression. One quote from the article that stood out as important to my understanding is "The Depression Era prompted increasing numbers of women to pursue new avenues of education that had previously been unavailable, and had seemed unlikely and unpopular for their gender." ( Flannery 2 ) This connects back to a moment in the book where this was important was during chapter 2, when Miss Caroline tells scout that Atticus must have taught her to read, and made her fell discouraged and guilty for being a girl and educated. ( Lee 19 ). This quote relates back to an adversity called sexism. It relates back to sexism because Miss Caroline did not want Scout to know how to read because she is a little girl, and Miss Caroline most likely wants to be the only one to educate the children. Another reason why my example relates back to sexism is because even though Jem is her older brother, and he still will always love her, as he starts getting older and getting more friends, he starts to become less interested in hanging out with Scout. He tells her he does not want to hang out with her anymore because she is a girl, and he now has more friends that are boys and have more in common with him. 

This helps me understand that in the book scout is going through a time where women are becoming more independent and being more confident by themselves which is pretty much what scout is going through. For example the article talks about how women were changing their roles in society,  “women began to challenge their roles in the academia as well as society in general.”(Flannery). This connects to the book because when Scout’s teacher was upset with her because she could read and told her not to anymore, “Now tell your father not to teach you anymore.”(Lee 19). This relates to ageism because the teacher thinks that because Scout is so young she shouldn't be able to read.

This makes  me understand that in how to kill a mockingbird scout is going through alot. Woman's start to become indenpedent like how scouts are starting to become independent. A quote from the article “University of Washington’s female student census reported that women were becoming more and more independent in their living situations.” (flannery) how this connects to the book, when scout was reading in class and her teacher got mad at her for being able to read. Quote from book “ Now tell your father to not teach you anymore.”  pg 16 ( Lee) this relates to agencies because scouts age is so young she shouldnt be albe to read 

this article shows me that before the economic upheaval in the 1930s, women traditionally did not strive for work or education because they already had the set idea of marriage as their future. ¨The women that did engage in academia often limited their involvement due to the fact that if they planned to marry (as most did), they would not be permitted to work thereafter.¨ (Flannery) this quote can help represent the precedent at the time of the ¨traditional¨ wife. ¨She discovered that i was literate and looked at me with more than faint distaste. Miss Caroline told me to tell my father not to teach me anymore, it would interfere with my reading¨ (Lee 19) this is a prime example of societal expectations for females to be uneducated at the time

This article makes me better understand why scout acts like a tomboy during a period when women didnt act like that since the story takes place during the great depression “The Depression era prompted increasing numbers of women to pursue new avenues of education that had previously been unavailable, and had seemed unlikely and unpopular for their gender”(flannery 2). This connects to the book since Scout pursues stuff that are boyish or not very womanly during the era. “ That boy’s yo’ comp’ny  and if he wants to eat up the table cloth you let him, you hear???” (Lee 27). The quote shows how Calpurnia expected scout to be, and it relates to sexism since women were expected to be the caregivers of the household and to be sweet and caring and expected to not beat up guys which is what prompted that conversation

In the book “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, a lot of sexism is going on toward women in the 1930s. Before the Great Depression, many women did not get an education because they were likely to get married and then made housewives and the men were made to work. But since there was a huge unemployment rate that made men less likely to be ready for marriage, women sought higher education to provide for themselves. A quote from the article that relates to this is, “The Depression-era prompted increasing numbers of women to pursue new avenues of education that had previously been unavailable, and had seemed unlikely and unpopular for their gender. Prior to the Depression, many women did not pursue higher education by enrolling in college courses”(Flannery). This connects to a specific part of the book because Scout's teacher was upset with her because she already knew how to read and write. Her teacher was trying to tell her to have Atticus stop teaching her because it will interfere with her learning.  A quote from the book is, “She discovered that I was literate and looked at me with more than a faint distaste. Mrs. Caroline told me to tell my father not to teach me anymore, it would interfere with my reading” (Lee 19). This is related to mostly one adversity and that's sexism because of how women are being looked at. They were not supposed to have a higher education than men and looked to just marry them and become a housewife. 

This article helps me understand this book more,because it opens my eyes more about what women had to go through and had to fight for back in the 1900's. This helps me understand what Scout is going through and how she is dealing with all the sexism and how the women are becoming more independent and having more confidence to stick up for there rights and try and gain more respect and be able to more of what they want and less of following others peoples guidelines.  An example in the article  is when it says, "female interest and participation in sports began to steadily increase at the same time that women expanded their academic involvement," (Flannery) really caught my eye. This relates back to the book when Miss Caroline looked at her and " she discovered I was literate and looked at me with more than faint distaste", (Lee 19) She was was surprised since Scout is so young that she can read so well at such a young age is this is a act of Ageism happening in this book. 

This article helped me understand the book better because it gave me a better understanding on how women's lives were in the 1900s. It opened my eyes more to what happened to women and how they were becoming more independent, and more confident. With the Great Depression happening, the women in the society started to make a new role for themselves. One quote in the article that stood out to me was, “The Depression era prompted increasing numbers of women to pursue new avenues of education that had previously been unavailable, and had seemed unlikely and unpopular for their gender.” (Flannery 2) This quote from this article connects back to when Miss Caroline finds out about Scout's reading abilities, “she discovered that I was literate and looked at me with more than faint distaste. Miss Caroline told me to tell my father not to teach me any more,” (Lee 19) This quote from the book shows how sexism plays a big role.  Miss Caroline tells Scout that Attucis shouldn’t be teaching her anymore, because since she's a little girl that she shouldn’t know how to read as well as she does. 

This article helps me understand the book better because it puts in perspective what women were going through during this time period” Women were becoming more likely to obtain work and support themselves while they were pursuing their education, thereby demonstrating their increased sense of independence and eschewing notions of stereotypical

domesticity,”(Flannery). This relates to when the finches are at Christmas dinner and when aunt Alexandra was commenting on what scout was wearing and how it was unladylike.” Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches…she said i wasn't supposed to be doing things that required pants,” (Lee 92). This relates to sexism because both the quotes are talking about how women had to have this perception of them being ladylike wearing dresses and not having an education, And how they are being perceived. 

This article helps me understand “To Kill a Mockingbird” more because in the early 1930’s black women were greatly affected by racism and sexism. This is about the same time line where the book was set in as well. Some of the situations affected were marriage and girls growing up and being more independent which was discriminated against. Girls decided that they would change how people perceive them and make a change. “The Depression era prompted increasing numbers of women to pursue new avenues of education that had previously been unavailable, and had seemed unlikely and unpopular for their gender.”(Flannery 19) This quote explains how the numbers increased in girls being more independent and outgoing, going against public standards. In the book Scout is starting to be more independent and going against their own social standards in their time. This is discriminating against sexism and ageism because Scout is young and a girl. 

this article helps me understand the book more because it tells us the types of new roles they had to take on, and how they are becoming more independent. "female students took on new roles that challenged traditional gender stereotypes in all parts of their lives: the pursuit of higher education, involvement in sports activities, and attitudes toward domestic responsibilities." (Flannery) this connects to when scout said that she learned to read all by herself, "now I was compelled to think about it, reading was something that just came to me." (Lee 20) this quote relates to ageism because Miss Caroline thought that just because shes young means she got taught how to read.

This article really helps me understand what women really went through back then. This article relates to the book because in the book scout is becoming more independent and in the article it talks about how women were becoming more independent back then and challenges the traditional stereotypes more back then. A quote from the article that relates to this is,“With increased academic and physical involvement at the University, women were becoming progressively independent and more comfortable in questioning what was expected of their gender in society, challenging the social expectation of becoming a mother and a wife.” ( Flanney) This connects to the part of the block where scouts teacher was very upset because she already knew how to write and read. And her teacher told her to stop reading with Atticus because it will make her smarter. A quote that relates to this is,“I suppose she chose me because she knew my name; as I read the alphabet a faint line appeared between her eyebrows, and after making me read most of My First Reader and the stock-market quotations from The Mobile Register aloud, she discovered that I was literate and looked at me with more than faint distaste. Miss Caroline told me to tell my father not to teach me any more, it would interfere with my reading.”(Lee) The adversity that relates to this is sexism because women are not supposed to have a higher education then men.

This post helps me understand more about how society was during the years that the book  How To Kill A Mockingbird took place, which is during the early 1900. The post and the book relate to each other because it tells us about the expectations for women and the roles they play in society, and Scout is going through some things about her expectations and how to act like the young girl she is. When Scout's teacher told her that her dad shouldn't be teaching her anymore. The quote “Now tell your father not to teach you anymore”(Lee 19). I would say it’s about ageism and sexism because her teacher just sees Scout as a little girl who is too young to already be able to read.

Prior to the Depression, many women did not pursue higher education by enrolling in college courses. In the quote “Prior to the Depression, many women did not pursue higher education by enrolling in college courses” (Flannery) I think that can be because either they just didn't enroll in the courses or that back then they did not have the rights to.

The article helps people today understand how women started to evolve into independent individuals in the 1930’s. Women began living on their own, seeking higher education, becoming active in not only sports but male dominated industries like business, breaking stereotypes, and becoming advocates for change. The great depression made it hard for men to be enough to support women who would carry out typical house roles after marrying. This helps to understand the attitude of Scout Finch in “To Kill A Mockingbird”. Scout having not many women in her life in the 1930’s looked to her older brother, Jem, and father, Atticus, as her role models. She is unconventional in the way she lives as a girl, dressing differently from how girls were “supposed” to dress and participating in the adventures in activities that Jem and their friend Dill did. She disliked stereotypical girl norms and was upset with the girl roles the boys would give her when playing. Scout would rebel and join in with her male friends in activity, like the women written about in the article, “female swimmers banded together and petitioned the physical education department to increase the hours of the women’s pool” (Flannery). Like the women Scout didn’t want to play into the typical female roles she expressed, “I reluctantly played assorted ladies who entered the script” (Lee 44). Sexism against women especially young girls like Scout was common and is brought to light in both texts.