Gender Roles - PowerPoint Presentation

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Gender Roles

To Kill a Mockingbird

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Create Your Own List

What kinds of messages are conveyed when you hear

“Be a man”? Be tough (physically, mentally, emotionally)

What kinds of messages are conveyed when you hear “Act like a lady”?

Wear a dress Slide3

What kinds of messages did you come up with in your t-chart?Slide4

Gender Roles Defined

Gender roles are cultural and personal. They determine how males and females should think, speak, dress, and interact within the context of society. The definitions of masculine and feminine stem from these social understandings.

While various socializing agents—parents, teachers, peers, movies, television, music, books, and religion—teach and reinforce gender roles throughout the lifespan, parents probably exert the greatest influence, especially on their very young offspring.Slide5

Women in the 1930s

Women were discriminated against in Alabama in the 1930s.

They had only been granted the right to vote in 1920 and were not allowed to serve on juries. They were not expected to have a career but to get married and have children. Women were expected to follow stricter moral and behavioural codes than men.

Despite these societal expectations, some women were determined to maintain the liberties that were handed to them during WWI. For example, many wondered why men had to replace women in jobs that they were capable to doing. (WWI era)Slide6

Women in the 1930s

While there were many obstacles for women in the 30s, there were also many women who were challenging the gender role norm.

Amelia Earhart set the woman’s flying world record in 1930.Pearl S Buck, an American writer, wrote The Good Earth, which was the best selling novel in the USA in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1935.

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Scout

Scout is called a tomboy throughout the novel. Most women in her community critique how she speaks, dresses and plays. Can you blame her for wanting to be a tomboy?

Jem often tells her that girls are “hateful” and “embarrassing” and “frivolous”. What’s worse is when Dill begins to spend time with Jem and Scout in the summer, he begins to treat Scout like an object.

“He had asked me earlier in the summer to marry him, then he promptly forgot about it. He staked me out, marked as his property, said I was the only girl, said I was the only girl he would ever love, then he neglected me.” (chapter 5)Throughout the novel, Scout consistently rejects the notion of women as property and the expectation that she follow rules a, b, and c in order to be a woman.

In chapter 24 you will read about how Scout feels in regard to “becoming a lady”Slide9

Gender Roles

The following words are associated with males in the novel.

How do these words 'construct' the novel's presentation of male gender?wise not

highly critical 

cuss drink gamble 

chew

undelectable

likeable

Now, let’s write a

list of words associated with women in the novel.

Hateful

Embarrassing

Frivolous

How

do these words 'construct' the novel's presentation of female gender?Slide10

Addressing Gender Norms Today

Societal prejudices toward gender were not just deeply rooted in the past

What “gender boxes” exist today for children? GoldieBlox Commercial

The Mask You Live In - Documentary TrailerIn each of these videos, how are gender norms being challenged? What connections can you make to the novel?Slide11

Reading Extension

Read the article: “Princesses and superheroes: the consequences of gender roles”

Link to article