“'You want to be a lady when you grow up, don't you?' I said not particularly” (Lee). Jean Louise Finch is a tomboy who grows up in a world where a girl is expected to become a woman. Submissive housewives and proper ladies were the expectations set for women by the time To Kill A Mockingbird took place. Scout Finch lived in a family that had a strong male influence; aside from Calpurnia, he had no real current example of what he should become. Because of this, Scout refused to conform to the ways of the rest of the women in Maycomb and around the world (Lee 84). Women in Maycomb, and everywhere for that matter, were seen as dolls in every form of the word. Girls were expected to wear dresses, refrain from swearing, and use good manners. They were seen as fragile objects: it was even a crime to swear near a woman. At one point in the story it is briefly mentioned that several men were accused of using profane language in the presence of a woman. Scout did not understand the approach that the people of Maycomb had towards women and challenged the roles that people tried to impose on her. Jean Louise, or Scout, had no intention of becoming ladylike. She was, essentially, a tomboy because she grew up playing with Jem and Dill and had no mother. In the games they would play, Jem would assign "girl" scout roles, in which she would not have a major role because the men had the more prominent roles. Jem had a lot to do with Scout's defiance of gentlemanly behavior. In more than one instance, he insulted Scout by calling her a girl, or by saying that unless she stopped acting like a girl, she couldn't play with him and Dill. Along with this appearance, Jem was considered a "gentleman", which is a respectable quality for a boy or man. Anyway…half of the card…black and white. However, another part of Lee's message, I believe, was to provoke the thought that perhaps it is also unfair to treat men and women differently. All humans are human despite their differences; everyone is equal, no one is better than anyone. A character like Scout contributed to manifesting these ideas, because she, already as a child, understood that segregation and discrimination were wrong. Her own rejection of gender roles helped shed light on the inequality women experience every day of their lives. Works Cited Lee, Harper. To kill a thrush. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1960. Print.Shmoop Editorial Team. "Alexandra Hancock in To Kill a Mockingbird." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., November 11, 2008. Web. April 29, 2014.Ware, Susan. "Women and the Great Depression". The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Np, nd Web. April 29. 2014.