To Kill a Mockingbird Women Quotes

“See there?” Jem was scowling triumphantly. “Nothin’ to it. I swear, Scout, sometimes you act so much like a girl it’s mortifyin’.”
There was more to it than he knew, but I decided not to tell him.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 4. Jem attacks Scout’s gender and insults her about acting like a girl whenever he feels she challenges his manhood. In this instance the tire he was pushing her in rolls into Radley’s yard and she makes him retrieve it. What she didn’t tell him was that she heard laughter coming from the Radley home. Boo is obviously inside watching them play, this foreshadows the important role he will have in the children’s lives.

The only time I ever heard Atticus speak sharply to anyone was when I once heard him say, “Sister, I do the best I can with them!” It had something to do with my going around in overalls. Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants. Aunt Alexandra’s vision of my department involved playing with small stoves, tea sets, and wearing the Add-A-Pearl necklace she gave me when I was born; furthermore I should be a ray of sunshine in my father’s lonely life. I suggested that one could be a ray of sunshine in pants just as well, but Aunty said that one had to behave like a sunbeam, that I was born good but had grown progressively worse every year.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 9. Aunt Alexandra, Atticus’s sister, is critical of the way he is bringing up his children. Tomboy Scout is a true representative of feminism who dresses like a boy and likes taking part in what are considered boys’ activitities. Alexandra’s vision for Scout is that she do ladylike things and be a “ray of sunshine” for her lonely father. However, Scout is her father’s daughter and feels she can be that ray in pants also.

Overnight, it seemed, Jem had acquired an alien set of values and was trying to impose them on me: several times he went so far as to tell me what to do. After one altercation when Jem hollered, “It’s time you started bein’ a girl and acting right!” I burst into tears and fled to Calpurnia.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 12. Scout observes that Jem is growing up and appears to have gained wisdom overnight. As the two siblings develop, a rift is opening up between them, with Jem adopting a patriarchal role rather than seeing his sister as an equal.

“It’s right hard to say,” she said. “Suppose you and Scout talked colored-folks’ talk at home it’d be out of place, wouldn’t it? Now what if I talked white-folks’ talk at church, and with my neighbors? They’d think I was puttin’ on airs to beat Moses.”
“But Cal, you know better,” I said.
“It’s not necessary to tell all you know. It’s not ladylike – in the second place, folks don’t like to have someone around knowin’ more than they do. It aggravates ’em. You’re not gonna change any of them by talkin’ right, they’ve got to want to learn themselves, and when they don’t want to learn there’s nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.”

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 12. The Finch’s black cook Calpurnia is trying to tell the children that you have to speak the language that people understand and you can’t go round acting like you are better than anyone else. An educated woman, she speaks proper English in the Finch home, but when she is with the black people in her community and at her church she speaks the way they do. Here, she is telling Scout what it means to be ladylike.

“For one thing, Miss Maudie can’t serve on a jury because she’s a woman – ”
“You mean women in Alabama can’t?” I was indignant.
“I do. I guess it’s to protect our frail ladies from sordid cases like Tom’s. Besides, I doubt if we’d ever get a complete case tried – the ladies be interrupting to ask questions.”

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 23. Atticus rather sarcastically explains to Scout why women aren’t allowed to serve on juries. Scout is against any form of inequality or gender prejudice and cannot see why women should not hold the same positions as men.

Jem and I laughed. Miss Maudie on a jury would be impressive. I thought of old Mrs. Dubose in her wheelchair – “Stop that rapping, John Taylor, I want to ask this man something.” Perhaps our forefathers were wise.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 23. Jem and Scout laugh as they picture Mrs. Dubose on a jury and barking orders at the judge, were women allowed to sit on them. Then Scout remembers how mean Mrs. Dubose was and thinks their forefathers might have been wise in excluding women.

The ladies were cool in fragile pastel prints: most of them were heavily powdered but unrouged; the only lipstick in the room was Tangee Natural. Cutex Natural sparkled on their fingernails, but some of the younger ladies wore Rose. They smelled heavenly. I sat quietly, having conquered my hands by tightly gripping the arms of the chair, and waited for someone to speak to me.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 24. Scout describes the ladies at her aunt’s missionary tea meeting. To the tomboy who is at home in a man’s world, she finds that ladies are still a mystery to her. But a fascinating one, judging by the great details with which she describes their appearance.

I was more at home in my father’s world. People like Mr. Heck Tate did not trap you with innocent questions to make fun of you; even Jem was not highly critical unless you said something stupid. Ladies seemed to live in faint horror of men, seemed unwilling to approve wholeheartedly of them. But I liked them. There was something about them, no matter how much they cussed and drank and gambled and chewed; no matter how undelectable they were, there was something about them that I instinctively liked.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 24. Scout’s reaction to the world of men vs women. She is searching for where she fits in. She is more at home in the world of men and more comfortable acting as a tomboy. But at the same time she is curious about the world of women.

After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 24. Scout sees her Aunt Alexandra’s strength of character after Atticus tells her of the death of wrongly accused Tom Robinson. She is upset and angry at some of the women at her missionary circle tea who could have given support to Tom. But she composes herself and graciously serves them, repaying their selfishness with her kindness. The normally hotheaded Scout sees that having the courage and strength of a lady like her aunt has real value.
Close