Aunt Alexandra works hard at being feminine, but Miss Maudie doesn't seem to care about those things. She wears men's overalls when she works in the garden, but is equally comfortable in more traditional garb. Aunt Alexandra has a personal quest to make Scout "behave like a sunbeam," but Miss Maudie accepts her as she is. Consequently, Scout finds in Miss Maudie a kindred spirit who helps her make sense of being female and, with Atticus, helps Scout develop tolerance. Miss Maudie treats the children in an adult manner, much like Atticus does. She never laughs at Scout's mistakes and she trusts the children to play in her yard within the boundaries she's set for them. Aunt Alexandra is "analogous to Mount Everest:…cold and there" while Miss Maudie is warm enough to pop out her dentures for Scout to see.
Miss Maudie has a quiet spirituality that shows itself only when taunted by "'the foot-washers [who] think women are a sin by definition.'" Aunt Alexandra displays her beliefs much more publicly. She's active in the Missionary Society, which appears to be as much a social club as a religious organization. Tolerance isn't a big part of the Missionary Society meetings, either. The ladies' lamentations over the living conditions of the Mrunas, an African tribe, leads to a discussion about how ungrateful the women believe Maycomb's African-American community to be. Miss Maudie is the person who ends that line of conversation with two sentences. Aunt Alexandra may not always agree with the course of discussion, but she refuses to be confrontational outside of her own family.
