Gender Inequality in ‘The Bean Trees’
Barbara Kingsolver addresses gender inequality by showing ways in which boys receive opportunities that girls do not. In Pittman County, many girls get pregnant in high school and dropout to raise their babies. The boys are generally not expected to take the same responsibilities. In her senior year, Taylor notices the amount of girls still in school is significantly lower than the amount of boys. “Believe me in those days the girls were dropping by the wayside like seeds off a poppyseed bun and you learned to look at every day as a prize… By senior year there were maybe two boys to every one of us” (Kingsolver, ch. 1). The girls lose their opportunity at an education when they become pregnant, while the