The Calamity Club

1. Do the women of the club have a higher moral ground than the respectable men? Can sisterhood be genuine when it's based on need?

2. When does Birdie's wish to be "good" conflict with her need to help Meg and herself? Does she align her morals with her actions at the club, or must she sacrifice her reputation for justice?

3. What's the difference between Legal Justice and Moral Justice in the book? Do the women change the system, or do they learn to cope with it?

4. How does the Eugenics Board affect your view of "the law" in 1933 Mississippi, especially since the state can legally sterilize women based on what others say? Is there any chance for "legal justice," and how does this situation support the "Calamity Club's" decision to operate outside societal rules?

5. Given her" childhood at the asylum, do you think Meg can ever truly transition into a "normal" life, or will she always be a "Calamity" at heart?

6. Why do they call themselves the Calamity Club? Are they victims of the Great Depression or a defiant force against the town's corrupt power? At what point in the novel do these women shift from enduring trouble to causing it?

7. Stockett described the book as "hopefully funny. Do you find the humor Stockett was hoping for, or did the seriousness of the women's situations overshadow the humor?

8. Is Frances, Birdie's sister, a villain or just a different kind of "survivalist"? How does her survival-focused respectability compare to the survival of the Calamity Club women?

9. What does the couple who adopted Meg reveal about their motives? Was their interest in Meg based on genuine compassion, or was it about money?

10. How does knowing that Meg's mother was physically stripped of her future (via sterilization) change the moral weight of the actions against the Garretts?

11. Does Meg's mother's absence make her a "tragic" character or a "heroic" one for surviving a system meant to erase her?

12. Do the men in the book understand the struggles the women face, or are they all part of the oppressive system? Can someone like Birdie have an equal relationship in this environment?

13. Stockett often explores how true evil resembles a man in a suit making "logical" state decisions. Who is the real "villain" of the story: a specific person or the bureaucracy itself

14. After the events of the book, do you think the social hierarchy of the town actually shifts, or will the "respectable" characters find a way to bury the truth and move on?

15. How did this compare to Stockett's first novel?