The Amish Culture

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Looking In/Looking Out: Exploring the Social and Cultural World

Compare your own experiences to those of an individual from an overseas cultural group (The Amish) in relation to gender and roles and status.

Gender, roles and status vary and differ throughout the societies and cultures of the world. My own micro, meso and macro world experiences would contrast those of a different societal or cultural background, such as an individual of the Amish culture. The Amish follow a strict set of rules defining their gender roles, their community roles as well as their status within society.

The Amish are a traditional community of a protestant and Anabaptist background. They are derived from a group who fled during the Protestant Reformation in …show more content…

The father is recognised and acknowledged as the head of the family and household, in charge of the family’s spiritual life and providing the family’s sustenance while wives are subordinate to their husband. Males provide overall leadership within the community. They are responsible for educating young boys in masculine areas such as farming and woodwork. Females are to do the same with young girls, educating them in feminine areas such as running a household and homemaking skills. Unmarried women may work outside the home yet married women are not allowed to work and are expected to hold their families and house as the priority. Gender dictates those within the Amish society, with their roles clearly structured and set out. Unlike the Amish, this strict definition of gender roles doesn’t apply to me. There is a certain degree of restriction within Australian society in me being a young, female student. Mainstream Western society still values the traits of being feminine with the media constantly reinforcing feminie standards. In my macro world, as a female, I am expected to be soft, pretty and ladylike. This value, my culture and heritage come with the expectation for a woman to marry, have children, maintain a household yet also participate within society in working. However, societal expectations for females within mainstream society are slowly being broken. There is the implication that females cannot work once they become mothers, but there is no set of defined rules for females restricting them to traditional roles, despite the societal expectation for women to conform to

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