Kaelyn Paprock Mrs.

Loveridge Honors English 10 23 September 2011

Fighting Women Clare Boothe Luce once said, Because I am a woman I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, she doesnt have what it takes, they will say women dont have what it takes. Clare Boothe Luce was a role model for those who believed they could do anything they wanted; she was a journalist, socialite, ambassador, and a US Congresswoman for Connecticut. She believed that women can do just as much as men, and achieved many accomplishments through her time. This strongly relates to Harper Lees point of Womens Rights and justice in her book To Kill a Mockingbird, published in the 1960s. The story is set over the time period of the 1930s during the Great Depression, when ladies felt they needed to be more apart of societies politics, ideas, and beliefs. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee symbolizes womens rights through the main character, Scout, who represents those who were finding it hard to fit the mold of the delicate dainty housewife and wanted for their ideas to be heard. The Great Depression was a time of expansion for labors influence and work forces fought for better working rights, which later inspired working class women to fight back. The 1930s were a time for many workers to back the unfair laws. For example, female workforces in Detroit fought to get better working conditions in their cigar rolling shop. Most of the 4,000 women worked in six shops, six to seven days a week for pittances, and poor ventilation had caused women to faint (Grevatt 1), and were told later to form a committee, then

Paprock 2 those in the committee were fired which caused some 2,500 cigar rollers to sit-down (Grevatt 1). This shows that the workforces would stick together and would not be treated unfairly, but also that the others who thought ladies should not work or do what men do, did not take them seriously. Similar to what Aunt Alexandria telling Scout that her vision of her involved playing with tea sets and wearing add-a-pearl necklaces (Lee 81) and that she wasnt supposed to be doing things that required pants (Lee 81). In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout represents being uncomfortable in their jobs by showing her uncomfortable ness in her dresses and breeched but loving to wear her overalls even though Aunt Alexandria thought it wrong for her to dress like a guy. Likewise men thought that women should not be fighting back for their jobs, or simply saying that they shouldnt be doing things that couldve been done in pants, but women did whatever it took to have the same rights and feel just as comfortable. Women were ready to fight back no matter what or who criticized them as dainty or weak, and saw themselves as the new change in the world. Although women were ready to fight back for jobs they wanted, it didnt matter their jobs were increasing and they couldnt help it. Those who still had money found it cheaper to pay a nurse to take care of them, or pay for a housemaid to take care of the house. So as a result women jobs such as nursing, cleaning maids, or clerical jobs increased. Census figures showed the percentage of employed women fourteen and older was at 24.3 percent in the 1930s (Ware 2). Norman Cousins realized this high percentage and offered a solution: Simply fire the women, who shouldnt be working anyway, and hire the me. Presto! No unemployment. No relief rolls. No depression (Ware 2 as quoted from Cousins). The ones who took the jobs risked public scorn because their job increase was seen as the last resort for helping the economy. Yet

Paprock 3 men certainly did not want to take a womens job, so it was not simple to just fire the women, because of this a separation in gender roles occurred and stereotyped what type of work they should do. Similar to Scouts situation in To Kill a Mockingbird, when Jem and Dill start to ignore her and only need her for certain roles in their games or schemes. She explains they spent days together in the tree house plotting and planning, calling me only when they needed a third party and on pain of being called a girl I spent the rest of the summer twilights sitting with Miss Maudie Atkinson (Lee 42). Scout wanted to be part of their games and schemes but knew they only needed her for a weak role or their last resort. So in response, she started to spend time with Miss Maudie, who taught her how to act like a lady but to fight for what she knew was right. In order to strengthen their roles, women had to fight in another way to prove they werent the third wheels in society. The smartest but hardest way to prove they had a stronger role in society, women had to be more involved in mans one dominant power over women, the law. For instance, in 1933 Franklin Roosevelt took office and then created the New Deal, which made connections between federal programs and citizens. Most of these program jobs were given to men, and if a woman were performing the same job she was being paid lower minimum wages. This had infuriated women, making them participate in CIO strikes and union drives, but few of these women held leadership positions (Ware 3). These few helped keep alive the needs of women by holding important positions in the New Deal, like Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, who oversaw many of the Social welfare initiatives (Ware 4). Through these important roles a woman could give her ideas and saw how she feels about a certain situation. In To Kill a Mockingbird the Missionary Circle in which Aunt Alexandra is a member, and is made up of the finest and

Paprock 4 smartest women in town who discuss how certain rules, ideas, and events should have been handled represent a woman involved in law. The meetings symbolizes how women were coming together and sharing their ideas and learning from each other what was going on in the world. Women were just starting to break free from a world ruled by men, and coming together to bring their ideas and beliefs to those who may or may not have wanted to hear them, contributing to the bigger changes at the time. In the end women had contributed to a bigger change, more then others had wanted. They overcame stereotypes that would break them free from being a third party to a mens world. They had started of with jobs that stereotyped of what women should do but were stubborn enough to make it into politics. Once having women administrators in the congress, Womens Rights were being fought for and were part of the fight for better Labor Laws. This had brought their ideas and beliefs in the world and was heard by others who would support them. Womens Rights during the 1930s were shown in the course of the story To Kill a Mockingbird and show the reader that if there were enough faith and belief in something its justice would come.