Essay on Society's View of Women

Throughout this course, we learned that women’s studies originated as a concern at the time that “women and men noticed the absence, misrepresentation, and trivialization of women [in addition to] the ways women were systematically excluded from many positions of power and authority” (Shaw, Lee 1). In the past, men had more privileges than women. Women have battled for centuries against certain patterns of inadequacy that all women experience. Every culture and customs has divergent female

Women and men are nestled into predetermined cultural molds when it comes to gender in American society. Women play the roles of mothers, housekeepers, and servants to their husbands and children, and men act as providers, protectors, and heads of the household. These gender roles stem from the many culture myths that exist pertaining to America, including those of the model family, education, liberty, and of gender. The majority of these myths are misconceptions, but linger because we, as Americans, do not analyze or question them. The misconception of gender suggests that biological truths no longer dictate our gender roles as men and women; they derive from cultural myths. We, as a nation, need

However, the times were changing in that women were allowed to start getting an education, the intent being they would be raising young men and needed to make sure they were educated, but it became so much more. An article written by the National Women’s History Museum pointed out the need to educating women and adolescents: “Another changing trend was that many of America’s youth began choosing their own spouses based on romance and companionship. In response to this transformation parents felt their girls should receive an education that would make them more attractive to well-bred husbands. Education was also regarded as beneficial for those women who had the misfortune to marry less reliable men, in which case they would be more capable of educating their own children and managing the family’s business affairs. Thomas Jefferson cited this very reason for educating his daughter, Martha Jefferson, saying: “The chance that in marriage she will draw a blockhead I calculate at about fourteen to one, and…the education of her family will probably rest on her own ideas and directions without assistance.” (Collins, 2003) Jefferson’s prediction was right. Martha Jefferson had twelve children and her husband was said to have become mentally ill later in life, leaving Martha Jefferson with a lot of responsibility.” (NWHM, 2007)

During the early 1800's women were stuck in the Cult of Domesticity. Women had been issued roles as the moral keepers for societies as well as the nonworking house-wives for families. Also, women were considered unequal to their male companions legally and socially. However, women’s efforts during the 1800’s were effective in challenging traditional intellectual, social, economical, and political attitudes about a women’s place in society.

As humans settled down to grow crops, women seem to have been responsible for much of the labor, giving them an advantage as new social roles were being created. They were responsible for feeding society, as well as for carrying and nursing the next generation. (Mahdavi, 2012) Women being responsible for the next generation is a very big responsible. Not only were they responsible for growing crops and providing meals for their families they were expected to make the next generation ready to follow in their footsteps in order to survive.

Similarly, in my culture gender norms were placed upon males needing to “man up,” and women were seen to be housewives. However, my grandmother wasn’t necessarily your average “house wife.” Indeed, she had children, and cooked for her husband but she also was provider as well. Like I mentioned before she worked at a fabric factory, but later applied to work for a hospital as maintenance. Here was a young mother of four stepping outside of the stereotypical norm to work and ensure stability for her family. Exposure to the workforce was very much embedded into the her children’s lives. Seeing both parents provide towards the household demonstrated a sense of equality among both male and female. As previously noted, my grandparents wanted their children to succeed in life so my grandfather always advised them to do more than he ever could. With money being low and my mom being the oldest she was forced to get a job at twelve. My grandfather helped her receive her first job working at a swat meet. With one child making some money, and two parents working they were able to save enough money to buy a house in the 1980’s.

Modernism is the term of deviating from the norm. In the early 1900s, modernism influenced women’s role in society by providing more opportunities, jobs, and role models for girls today, in society.

In today’s society, there is often a misconception among women and men and the roles they are expected to follow through with. Although there has been advances in the way women are treated, it is unfortunately still an unbalanced dynamic in our society. From an early age, women are often persuaded, even if subconsciously, to follow a certain pathway in life. They are most often associated with staying home, keeping the house clean, cooking, baking, and raising children. Certain mediums that girls are exposed to tend to sway them towards these specific wants and aspirations. The way in which certain products are presented to little girls create an image they feel like they need to master. Men, on the other hand, are taught something completely different. They are regularly habituated with more masculine and self-reliant tasks. From an early age, they are automatically seen as people that deserve to be educated and use their smart, resourceful assets to contribute to society. They are without a doubt going to get a job and become a father and husband that provides for his family. In most situations, even if the woman has a job, men are the main “bread-winner.” Going along with this belief, the products boys are often marketed portray the idea of strength and independence. Whether it is a toy or a book, men are more often than not characterized as the heroic, more capable gender. There are many cases in which different mediums exhibit the ideas of men being the superior

Gender roles have built the foundation of society in a negative way. There are many sources and reasons to prove the harmful impact it has left on the world today. For instance, it has restricted people’s ambition as well as pursuit of achieving greatness. Gender roles have created a barrier for both genders trapping them from achieving what they aim for. Many people in modern society have dreams and ambitious pursuits, but are held back by the obstacle of gender roles and expectations. Hence, many movements and changes have been created to lighten the negative impact gender role has on the people of today’s world. Historically, gender roles have been a way of keeping order in past societies, but that is not the case today.

Women and men have had certain roles in society that were understood amongst them to be specified for their particular gender. Males were known to have the leading role as head of the house hold and the bread winner while the woman’s duty was to stay at home and take care of the house and children. While many people years ago deemed this way of life and practice to be the right and ethical thing to do, times have changed and so this kind of treatment towards a woman’s equality must be questioned. Even though times have changed, this mindset of a woman’s ability to be as good as a man has not completely gone away. In today’s society a woman contributes to the economy and her family as equally as that of a man. Therefore, women should share equal rights and opportunities as their gender counterparts.

Our gender-biased society perceives the ideal women as someone that takes a role of a non-leadership companion to men who mainly should focus on attractiveness just to feed the society standard. The oppression that women face every day is the result of many that don’t even see it as a problem. They often overlook the fact that is happening all over that it targets in destroying the women’s

“Ambivalent sexism involve[s the] conceptualizing [of] women as the weaker gender that should be relegated to domestic roles” (Glick and Fiske 1996). Throughout time, the misrepresentation of women has been visible in most, if not all, aspects of society. The silencing of women has been a practice employed by most power structures in our past and current societies. Male dominance and a patriarchal hierarchy have dictated the movement of the world and tilted the balance of equity and equality is the sectors of politics, economics, social relations, and education. Centuries of manipulation and coercion have undoubtedly had an impact on the self-identification of women and the gender expectations that derive of said identification.

“So, please show that skin some love! Pamper it, baby it, show it off, without shame. Go out without guilt, go on and be bold. Let the whole world know, that the skin you’re in, is a temple to behold” (Zen and Pi). This poem created for women shows that women should love their bodies and appreciate the temples that have been given to them. It does not mean to abuse it by constantly eating unhealthy and not taking care of ones body, but understanding that a little meat on your bones is not the worse thing in the world. “We all struggle with negative thought about our bodies. Glamour magazine launched a survey in 2011 that found 97 percent of women have at least one negative thought about their bodies every single day” (Friedman, Michael). Being that this statistic was found in an article from 3 years ago, I would hope that percentage has gone down. There are plenty people in the world who do not love their bodies because of the body shaming the society places on them. In the end, they continue to harm themselves in order to conform to societies standards. “Accepting the body as it is can be a tough exercise, but it is crucial to overall mental and physical health. Hating our bodies only feeds into a cycle of risky behaviors that reinforce our negative self-assessment. Starts today off right by learning to accept the skin you’re in” (Friedman, Michael). In the movie Real Woman Have Curves there is a stand against what society considers the norm for all woman.

Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice it’s natural Size – Virginia Woolf.

I’d like to start my Essay with famous quote of Virgina Woolf, which goes as, “Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice it’s natural Size”