Gender, what is the exact meaning of this world in society. When people speak of gender in their conversation, it is most likely a way to distinguish if one’s a male or female. According to Merriam-Webster, gender is describe as a state of being male or female. The importance of the definition offered by Merriam-Webster is the part, “state of being.” Anyone in their own culture/society can define themselves as male or female, with no influence from biological parts. Gender issues have developed into a controversial topic but how did gender history come about? The topic of gender in historical terms could not have started without women, who were discontent about their representation in history, which were none. Green and Troup organized their chapter about Gender History into 4 different topic, explaining the significance of gender in history and analyzing problems in certain research methods.
Even though gender is a big issue, Green and Troup focuses on women influences on the creation of gender history. The point stressed in this chapter is, without women’s discontent and almost zero representation in history, gender history would have never existed, in this case women history. Before elaborating on women history, Green and Troup explained gender is a set of cultural behaviors established for the sexes in a given society. The definition gives way to how gender is used to explain the feminist analysis in history.
Majority of early historians started to research about the life and social class of women in the past and sometimes based on stories of famous female figures. Western ideology historians started to developed new method of describing past female life. Many lean toward the side of Marxist history, which look at the diffe...
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...lieve quantitative history is a great addition to gender history because the statistical information will provide empirical evidences to the topic. A useful quantitative method would be a chart for the topic, women’s occupation and marriage rate during World War II. The chart can provide statistics about the rise of women in factories and the decline of marriage. The statistics will show a clearer cause and effect argument.
Gender history would not be possible without the rise of women and their headstrong goal of gaining a place in the history books. Early historians developed a more simple outlook, which simply classified every women be similar in class. As historian developed a more critical analysis, they included many social factors to explain women’s status change. Women created gender history, and now doors are open for other gender issues to be researched.
To begin with, there are many events in United States history that have shaped our general understanding of women’s involvement in economics, politics, the debates of gender and sexuality, and so forth. Women for many centuries have not been seen as a significant part of history, however under thorough analyzation of certain events, there are many women and woman-based events responsible for the progressiveness we experience in our daily lives as men, women, children, and individuals altogether. Many of these events aid people today to reflect on the treatment of current individuals today and to raise awareness to significant issues that were not resolved or acknowledged in the past.
Women had no choice but to follow whatever society told them to because there was no other option for them. Change was very hard for these women due to unexpected demands required from them. They held back every time change came their way, they had to put up with their oppressors because they didn’t have a mind of their own. Both authors described how their society affected them during this historical period.
Throughout history, women have struggled with, and fought against oppression. They have been held back and weighed down by the sexist ideas of a male dominated society which has controlled cultural, economic and political ideas and structure. During the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s women became more vocal and rebuked sexism and the role that had been defined for them. Fighting with the powerful written word, women sought a voice, equality amongst men and an identity outside of their family. In many literary writings, especially by women, during the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s, we see symbols of oppression and the search for gender equality in society. Writing based on their own experiences, had it not been for the works of Susan Glaspell, Kate Chopin, and similar feminist authors of their time, we may not have seen a reform movement to improve gender roles in a culture in which women had been overshadowed by men.
The idea and characteristics of gender, relate to the specific differences men and women deliver to society and the unique qualities and roles each demonstrate. The term ‘Femininity’ refers to the range of aspects and womanly characteristics the female represents. The foundation of femininity creates and brings forth many historical and contemporary issues. According to Mary Wollstonecraft in ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’, women’s femininity is considered a flaw of nature. Throughout the paper, history indicates how women are viewed and looked upon in a male dominated world which hinders a woman’s potential, her character, her mind, her dreams, her femininity. The paper particularly stresses the idea of power, the power of man. The historical argument leans towards man’s desire to treat women as inferior to them.
It is a well-known fact that our world history is dominated by a tyrannical patriarchy in which the majority of women have been forgotten. Somehow, according to Barry, it is the men who have been forgotten. "Guys have played an important role in history, but this role has not been given the attention it deserves, because nobody wrote it down"(9).
Are Lerner’s works a sound contribution to historiography? To comprehend this question one must search her ideas and works of the field. In one article she wrote, “The striking fact about the historiography of women is the general neglect of the subject...[by] historians. As long as historians held
The 19th Century is an age that is known for the Industrial Revolution. What some people don’t realize is the effect that this revolution had on gender roles in not only the middle and upper classes (Radek.) It started off at its worst, men were considered powerful, active, and brave; where as women were in no comparison said to be weak, passive, and timid (Radek.) Now we know this not to be true, however, back in the day people only went by what would allow ...
History accounts for the great contributions of women in promoting social justice, particularly in uplifting the morale and functions of women in the society. From being the oppressed gender, various women managed to change the traditional roles of women by fighting for their rights to be heard and for them to given equal opportunities. These women boldly stood against gender stereotypes of women and proved the entire world that they could defy conventions. Particularly at the turn of the 20th century, women battled against the oppressions brought by patriarchy in different ways. These activist women had crusaded for the promotion of their civil rights, sexual freedom, and pursued careers which were once forbidden to them.
The word gender refers to a general classification of human beings into male and female with socially and culturally constructed characteristics, behaviors, attributes and roles preconceived and labelled as appropriate for each class. The society and culture today have placed human beings in a box which to a large extent dictates how we act in the world.
In “Women in the Twentieth Century and Beyond”, Kimberly M. Radek discusses the struggling events that occurred throughout history in order for gender discrimination to be eliminated.
"Women were denied knowledge of their history, and thus each woman had to argue as though no woman before her had ever thought or written. Women had to use their energy to reinvent the wheel, over and over again, generation after generation. ... thinking women of each generation had to waste their time, energy and talent on constructing their argument anew. Generation after generation, in the face of recurrent discontinuities, women thought their way around and out from under patriarchal thought." (Lerner qtd in Merrim Modern Women xxiii)
French, Katherine L., and Allyson M. Poska. Women and Gender in the Western past. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Print.
Wojczak, Helena. “English Women’s History.” English women’s history. Hasting Press. n.d. Web 24 Nov 2013
Unfortunately, too many students hear teachers say that if it 's in the book, then it must be so. Much of what has been called history has been recorded by men of the dominant culture of that society. The men who write the text decided what should be recorded and what is important. There is little written about women, let alone minority women. A lot of students have deducted that since women and members of minority groups rarely appear in history texts, they contributed little to history.” She even references a book that supports her opinion by Dr. Mary Pipher, a psychotherapist and New York Times best-selling author for her book, Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls (1975), says that when girls and women read a history of Western civilization, they are essentially reading a record of men’s lives. Pipher quotes Dale Spender, author of Man Made Language (1980; 1985), “Women’s accomplishments are relegated to the lost and found.” As girls study Western civilization, they become increasingly aware that history is the history of men. History is His Story, the story of
Society has stamped an image into the minds of people of how the role of each gender should be played out. There are two recognized types of gender, a man and a woman, however there are many types of gender roles a man or a woman may assume or be placed into by society. The ideas of how one should act and behave are often times ascribed by their gender by society, but these ascribed statuses and roles are sometimes un-welcomed, and people will assume who they want to be as individuals by going against the stereotypes set forth by society. This paper will examine these roles in terms of how society sees men and women stereotypically, and how men and women view themselves and each other in terms of stereotypes that are typically ascribed, as well as their own opinions with a survey administered to ten individuals. What I hope to prove is that despite stereotypes playing a predominant role within our society, and thus influencing what people believe about each other in terms of their same and opposite genders, people within our society are able to go against these ascribed stereotypes and be who they want and it be okay. Through use of the survey and my own personal history dealing with gender stereotyping I think I can give a clear idea as to how stereotypes envelope our society, and how people and breaking free from those stereotypes to be more individualistic.