How are the ways people view gender roles in maycomb different than the way we view gender roles today? How r they similar?

Maycomb is the fictional setting for the novel by Harper Lee "To kill a Mocking Bird" the way in which people on this fictional town see gender is mostly based on prejudice and bias, it is commonly read during the course of the novel that all female must behave in one way and all males in another. We can read the particular example of Scout Finch a girl who is not happy with this social conception of genders as presented in Maycomb. She is not happy with the concept iof having to be sweet, soft and polite all the time just because it is how girls must act. She is what now could be considered as a tomboy.

Today social stigma in regards to gender is not as strict as presented in the novel; most people do not necessarily expect a woman to be sweet, soft and all-polite. There is a more open mind these days about what a woman can be or act like, so, in that way, we can say that our society is different to the one presented in the Novel.

But there still is a sense or the "right" or more preferred way in which a woman is to behave or act. There is some degree of prejudice in our society. It is true that society accepts women with different behaviour to what it is "normal" or preferred, but we still encourage our little girls to dress, play and act more girly-like because it is better seen. We still buy soldiers to our boys, but little kitchen sets to our girls.