Women are subjected to an extreme degradation and have been expected to conform to the influence of man. Historically, men began to expect women to attend to the up keeping of the household and to tend to the children, until it became a conventional image of society. In turn, women had very limited opportunities to escape their confines of the stereotype until they began to understand their value. As progressive as the feminist movement is for the equality of the sexes, women are still bound to their past expectations of “women’s work,” and this discrediting to the society as a whole. The ways of the past are extremely influential in understanding how to progress towards the future, so I have chosen to research and understand the inferior status that women have been trying to overcome for ages, in order to influence the future positively. The traditional values and expectations that men have obligated upon women keep the society from advancing, and still act as a …show more content…
degrading factor that suppresses the desire that women have to expand beyond the homestead. That desire to escape the past is a motivator that encourages women to break through the restraints that society has set for them by surpassing the constraints of the past and therefore, by redefining what it means to be a woman. The typical view that society has about “women’s work” is degrading and detrimental to the way the way women are viewed within the society. Extending from prehistoric eras, women have been subjected to the misogynistic ways of men. Men have standardized the idea of the segregation among the sexes and have fabricated their dominance. By limiting women’s contact with the innovative and imaginative world, women have been forced to be submissive and take care of the family (while the man is the bread winner). The expectation that women are required to have the “children to tend and the clothes to mend” (Women Work) explicates their stature within the society and the lack of respect that they receive for doing an inexplicably difficult job. The stereotype that does not allow for the deviation from being a “mother- woman” (the awakening) has set the expectations for future generations of women and still contributes to the inequality of the sexes in the generations today. Along with their expectations in society, the idea of “women” has been glorified and romanticized to the point that women are not able to meet the expectations that are set for them.
The body of a woman has been a widely subjected and discussed. Women are given unrealistic expectations, not only to keep the house (and the children), but to represent the ideals of femininity. The expectations of femininity involve beauty and determine the extended idea of “womanliness.” The glorification of the female body makes women feel degraded and does not allow for confidence in their own skin. Along with the degradation, women endure sexualization that make a their “nakedness (feel) strange” (The HandMaids Tale) and diminishes the majority of the respect that one can have for themselves. Equally, the inferior status that women are expected to conform to and how men sexualize their bodies are seemingly conspicuous to how women have been stereotyped and it develops their “standard” situation within the
civilization. Women have been dictated their role as a homemaker (and caretaker) because they have been viewed as a subordinate to man and are dedicated to the well being of their children and marriage. However forced and idealized the roles of women are, it is difficult to break the standards that are required of them, without destroying the concept of their families. It is increasingly evident that most women are dedicated to the vows “till death do us part” (The Handmaids Tale) and this is the rationale that keeps them bound to their stereotypes. As women are considered the “pillars of the house” (Any Woman), they are represented as an important cconsituent of what makes the family work. They use their love and their families importance “against themselves” (Women) and make decisions for the stability of life for the people they love. Their love for their family has allowed for their inferiority because men had somehow fabricated the idea that the “fruitful” (HMT) qualities of women make them incompetent of being capable to do things other than “women’s work.” As love is an important factor to why women have subjected themselves to their submissiveness, to this day, women have difficulties breaking from the bonds of their “home-bound” lifestyle. Everyday, women are taking steps to break their standardized place within the society and are striving to live in a society that equalizes the sexes. Women are beginning to realize that their “that outward existence which (they) conform (leads to a confusion in) the inward life.” (The Awakening) The idea of women’s growing independence is important to the progressive nature in society. Women are “to swim far out, where no woman had swum before (The Awakening)” and are becoming increasingly independent of the male population. By finding their identity, women are beginning to prove their ability to break through their confines of society and are finding ways to destroy the stereotype of the past. The feminist movement is progressive and influential in determining rights for women, as they are breaking away from their stature of being just a housewife. The country has moved from not allowing women to vote to allowing women to own buisnesses, which shows just how progressive the movement is. As women find their sense of identity and become less submissive to man, they are breaking the bonds that society constrains them with and represent the entering of a new era. Overall, the idea of “women’s work” is viewed as a negative and a degrading term. However, if women were truly recognized for their dedication and their influence that they actually have within the world then it would be viewed possibly. Women are, to this day, degraded because of the stereotypes that were set for them in the past. Presently, women are taking steps to overcome the conventional image of society and are defying expectations. Men feel superior to women, in the past, because women did not understand their value. However, as women are beginning to understand their value, there is an evident need for equality. This new way of thinking is representative of a progressive world, and shows that women will continue to break expectations and will continue to earn more respect.
In the past there were many biases against women and their lack of abilities compared to men. Although the male perspective has changed over the past few centuries, there are many feminists who still fight for ...
My mother was taught, as her mother before and so on, that these conversations are to be kept private and talked about quietly. In response to this, the power of men has an increasingly strong hold on the ideal physical beauty and how the changes of the body, such as menstruation, are in private and never spoken of. The Body Project gives a disturbing look at how women in the past few centuries and the present should act, look like, and keep hidden in response to what men think is most desirable. No matter how free women think they are, we are still under the control of men, even if it is not directly. This book opens the conversation on the problems that are still plaguing women and how society needs to change to have a healthier environment for women to be comfortable in their skin.
Throughout most of recorded history, women generally have endured significantly fewer career opportunities and choices, and even less legal rights, than that of men. The “weaker sex,” women were long considered naturally, both physically and mentally, inferior to men. Delicate and feeble minded, women were unable to perform any task that required muscular or intellectual development. This idea of women being inherently weaker, coupled with their natural biological role of the child bearer, resulted in the stereotype that “a woman’s place is in the home.” Therefore, wife and mother were the major social roles and significant professions assigned to women, and were the ways in which women identified and expressed themselves. However, women’s history has also seen many instances in which these ideas were challenged-where women (and some men) fought for, and to a large degree accomplished, a re-evaluation of traditional views of their role in society.
“Boys will be boys, and girls will be girls”: few of our cultural mythologies seem as natural as this one. But in this exploration of the gender signals that traditionally tell what a “boy” or “girl” is supposed to look and act like, Aaron Devor shows how these signals are not “natural” at all but instead are cultural constructs. While the classic cues of masculinity—aggressive posture, self-confidence, a tough appearance—and the traditional signs of femininity—gentleness, passivity, strong nurturing instincts—are often considered “normal,” Devor explains that they are by no means biological or psychological necessities. Indeed, he suggests, they can be richly mixed and varied, or to paraphrase the old Kinks song “Lola,” “Boys can be girls and girls can be boys.” Devor is dean of social sciences at the University of Victoria and author of Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality (1989), from which this selection is excerpted, and FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society (1997).
In the majority of early cultures and societies, women have always been considered subservient and inferior to men. Since the first wave of feminism in the 19th century, women began to revolt against those prejudicial social boundaries by branching out of the submissive scope, achieving monumental advances in their roles in civilization. However, gender inequality is still prevalent in developed countries. Women frequently fall victim to gender-based assault and violence, suffer from superficial expectations, and face discriminatory barriers in achieving leadership roles in employment and equal pay. Undoubtedly, women have gained tremendous recognition in their leaps towards equal opportunity, but to condone these discrepancies, especially
The Social Expectations of Race and Gender “.Race, gender, and social class play a key role in why stereotypes and inequality are so challenging to erase (Gender & Society). ” How a person sees others should not be determined by what he or she assumes to know about them based on stereotypes. Even the way we impose a racial interpretation on someone draws on traditional customs that reflect both gender and race. Overall, it is astonishing how consistent the design of ethnic fluency is within societal expectations about what other people do, and even what we anticipate from women compared to that of men. Ultimately, race and gender can put individuals at odds with social expectations.
Society has long since considered women the lessor gender and one of the most highly debated topics in society through the years has been that of women’s equality. The debates began over the meaning between a man and woman’s morality and a woman’s rights and obligations in society. After the 19th Amendment was sanctioned around 1920, the ball started rolling on women’s suffrage. Modern times have brought about the union of these causes, but due to the differences between the genetic makeup and socio demographics, the battle over women’s equality issue still continues to exist. While men have always held the covenant role of the dominant sex, it was only since the end of the 19th century that the movement for women’s equality and the entitlement of women have become more prevalent. “The general consensus at the time was that men were more capable of dealing with the competitive work world they now found themselves thrust into. Women, it was assumed, were unable to handle the pressures outside of the home. They couldn’t vote, were discourages from working, and were excluded from politics. Their duty to society was raising moral children, passing on the values that were unjustly thrust upon them as society began to modernize” (America’s Job Exchange, 2013). Although there have been many improvements in the changes of women’s equality towards the lives of women’s freedom and rights in society, some liberals believe that women have a journey to go before they receive total equality. After WWII, women continued to progress in there crusade towards receiving equality in many areas such as pay and education, discrimination in employment, reproductive rights and later was followed by not only white women but women from other nationalities ...
The narrow view of the world that we often experience prevents us from even engaging for or against ideals that we would take on, given the chance. We often become deaf to opportunity, however. While it may seem we are complicit in many of the injustices that our society perpetuates, often times we are not even aware of the issue. An uninformed decision will be as bad as no decision. Many problems exude from the state of our social values. The role that women play in society is slowly changing from that of a ‘nurturer’ to any role a woman strives for. Progress has come through much pain and the hope is one day there will be real equality in the results of our societies spoken and unspoken laws.
Throughout history and even today women are regarded as inconsequential. They are chattels or servants, a person without rights. In some present instances, women are struggling to show that they do have rights and can make a contribution to society if given the chance.
It is clear that gender roles and expectations become linked to broader cultural beliefs and prejudices. Some occur due to culture and religion, others due to the prejudices through the hetero-patriarchal normativity of gender roles and expectations. As evident in the documentaries “Gender Against Men”, “Gay Witch Hunt in Iraq”, “Life at Any Price” and “Guatemala: Killer’s Paradise,” if surely gender-based expectations and norms are explicitly defined and manifest into violence, war, murder and prejudice. This paper will decide whether or not the state plays a key role in all of the above cases.
Throughout history, women have had a difficult time establishing their authority and presence in society. You never hear about women making contributions to one’s society such as leading a group of people to complete a task or invent something for the good of their society. No, when you think of women, you think of them as housekeepers who take care of the children, clean the house, and make sure dinner is ready by the time the husband is back from a long day of work. In the late 19th century, women struggled against male authority in which their husbands made sure they always obey and listen to them or they will suffer consequences such as being punished.
Throughout history, women have remained subordinate to men. Subjected to the patriarchal system that favored male perspectives, women struggled against having considerably less freedom, rights, and having the burdens society placed on them that had been so ingrained the culture. This is the standpoint the feminists took, and for almost 160 years they have been challenging the “unjust distribution of power in all human relations” starting with the struggle for equality between men and women, and linking that to “struggles for social, racial, political, environmental, and economic justice”(Besel 530 and 531). Feminism, as a complex movement with many different branches, has and will continue to be incredibly influential in changing lives.
During the 18th and 19th century, patriarchy has been responsible for designing women’s role in society. Throughout history, men have been deemed as superior while women have been regarded as inferior. Society has this ideology that women are the sole laborers of a household; they were not granted the same privileges as men. In addition, women have been negatively affected by stereotyping. Women have been portrayed on television as being submissive to men. The depiction of women on television portrays the implications of a societal view of women. From a man's perspective, an ideal woman is a housewife who does all the household duties herself. However, over the years, studies have shown that gender roles have slowly advanced. Women began to challenge the traditional gender roles, and they expect that men share employment as well as tending to the household and children. The traditional roles that women were expected to play is now an ideology of the past. There is a double standard set between men and women. Women have come a long way; women began to enter the work force in jobs that men held previously. They have also changed their appearance, attitude and how they are viewed by people. Therefore, women are not to be viewed as inferior. Consequently, women went from being submissive to being assertive, influential, and successful individuals.
In the past, many people believed that women’s exclusive responsibilities were to serve their husband, to be great mothers and to be the perfect wives. Those people considered women to be more appropriate for homemaking rather than to be involved in business or politics. This meant that women were not allowed to have a job, to own property or to enjoy the same major rights as men. The world is changing and so is the role of women in society. In today’s society, women have rights that they never had before and higher opportunities to succeed.
The role women play in today’s society is a drastic change from the previous role. Women used to be confined to the superiority of the man. Physically, mentally, and emotionally abused, belittled, embarrassed, and silenced. These are just a few examples of the emotion from the isolated treatment of the past. A woman’s role in today’s society is more valued than ever before.