Through investigations of writers as diverse as Silvia Federici, and Angela Davis, Maria Mies, and Sharon Hays, Judith Butler, and Steven Gregory we have come to understand that confronting the categorization of gender differences is a complex and nuanced project. Whether one is an ontologist, exploring the metaphysical nature of gender differences (that may or may not lead down the road of essentialism) or a phenomenologist exploring how exactly it is that one “does” gender—to the extent that there even exists a concept called gender—one must employ a varied and multipartite approach. Writers such as Federici, Mies, and Davis sketched out a framework of the history of gender roles for us. From what Federici calls a time of primitive …show more content…
Joan Scott, whose essay Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis appears just a few years prior to Kerber’s, demonstrates that by drawing from other diverse disciplines (anthropology, cultural studies, economics, literary criticism) historians can show how knowledge, power, and indeed identity can be shaped by the category of gender. Echoing other poststructuralists of the time, Scott tells us that gender is, in point of fact, part of a larger system of relationships, and it links together the forces of ideology, normative behavior, political action, and identity formation. Scott breaks with tradition and suggests that gender is defined in relation to other cultural and ideological forms and not tied to any biological origins, or mired in the rubric of sexual roles; that it is in effect, not about some essential attributes but about its social function within an historical period.
In their engaging study On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough, economists Alberto Alesina, Paola Giuliano, and Nathan Nunn “test the hypothesis that traditional agricultural practices influenced the historical gender division of labor and the evolution and persistence of gender norms.” What they found was that in those societies that employed the use of ploughs for agriculture, women are less likely work outside the home, be elected to elected
The two publications that best contextualize gender are the Lowell Offering and the Godey’s Lady Book periodicals as the articles found in both magazines depict traditional gender roles for males and females. For the Lowell Offering, this is best seen in the article entitled, “Woman’s Proper Sphere”, which focuses on the thoughts associated with oppression like, “Is it ambitious wish to shine as man’s equal, in the same scenes in which he mingles” or “Does she wish for a more extensive influence, than that which emanates from a woman’s home?” Yet these progressive questions are met with answers like “How necessary, then, that she should understand these pursuits (of men), that she may truly sympathize with and encourage those, with whom she may be associated. In this way…her influence must and
Drawing on Joan Scott's "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis" and on Alice Kessler-Harris's "Just price, Free Market and the Value of Women", the following questions will be answered, How has the 'equality' of women and men been expressed according to both Scott and Kessler-Harris? Why 'gender' has become a "useful category of historical analysis" for historians? How different (other) historians view 'gender'? What are Kessler-Harris's views on the "equality," "comparable worth" and "equal pay?" Lastly, the importance of the two articles will be highlighted as it relates to the contribution to gender studies.
In order for a revolution to be successful, there are many components and stages that play into it. Matter of fact, George Didi-Huberman, the author of the article Uprisings argues that there are five different parts: elements, gestures, words, conflicts, and desires. Each part is unique and significant in its own way. This can be noted from analyzing different revolutions and rebellions throughout time and the outcome of them. Agreeing with Didi-Huberman, I will provide examples of each division and demonstrate how each one is necessary.
Gender roles of diverse cultures have differed immensely throughout history. The evolution of gender roles first began in the Paleolithic Age and then began to transform with the transformation of the Paleolithic Age to the Neolithic Age. Women in Mesopotamia, India, Greece, China, and Rome were not treated as equals and viewed as inferior to men. Cultures like Egypt and Persia had similar laws for women and treated them with more respect out of any of the other cultures.
This critical textual analysis will examine feminine identity and the essentialistic ideas of the late nineteenth century between men and women as elaborated by Kaplan and Rogers in “Essentialisms, Determinisms. It will include an analysis of theories regarding dichotomies of biological determinism and cranial classification. Essentialism argues that there are categories of objects and genres that have essential characteristics, notwithstanding individual variation, and that these essential characteristics define the objects and genres to an extent that they reveal truth (Kaplan and Rogers 27). Determinism is a theory or in some cases a doctrine. “Nature” has been the historical burden women have faced. It is not the only such burden, but it has been the largest and the heaviest. Psychological and social implications of essentialist beliefs create gender segregation, inequality, and is often used to excuse gender-based biases in society. These types of ideas are often used as a justification for misogynistic and essentialistic systems in society.
Nature vs. Nurture? The debate has obsessed the minds of psychologists and philosophers for many years, each arguing their idea is the right way. ABC aired a TV documentary "Boys and Girls are Different" hosted by John Stossel to show some of the leading feminists ideas and their opponents thoughts.
For years, many scholars have provided many discussions over the topic of gender and sexuality. However, one needs to ask themselves: Are these two topics, gender and sexuality, useful as a category for historical analysis? The articles written by both Joan W. Scott and Afsaneh Najmabadi, answer such a question. By critically examining and assessing their two article, can the usefulness of gender and sexuality as a category for historical analysis be proven.
In Geoffrey Chaucers' The Nun's Priest's Tale, he uses a stories-within-stories to explain a very important moral lesson. The tale begins like that of a mock-heroic tale but takes a turn when Chanticleer, the main character, gets a disturbing vision of his death. When he tells one of his wives, Pertelote, she shames him for his cowardice nature and how dreams only have a significance to tell you that something is wrong with your body, and even gives him a medicine that should cure his ill-health. Pertelote uses an elevated language to get her point across, and when she does this she then turns herself into the antagonist and stands in Chanticleer's way. While Chanticleer wants to believe her, he then goes into detail of many authors, and people who
Amongst societies, there is a great variety of means of survival, all of which are dependent upon factors influencing the community—geographical location and structure of authority, to name a few. Such factors and the community’s ways of survival create the underlying basis of other complex issues, including the relationship between the sexes. Many anthropological papers that concentrate on the modes of production of specific groups of people have shown a connection between the modes of production and the presence or absence of gender inequality. Futhermore, there is also evidence of a further causality between the two: as a society adopts a more complex mode of
Prior to reading the article Doing Gender, I have never paid attention to the concept of doing gender. I found it interesting how these roles go so unnoticed because they are so enforced in our society. We never stop to think or questions if an individual’s actions are masculine or feminine. For example, some of us are just so use to having our mothers cook and our dad’s do all the heavy lifting but we never stop to think why is it like this or what does this represent.
It is again seen in Theories of Sex Difference, that the author, Whitbeck, makes no attempt to establish one definition of woman. Whitbeck examines how philosophers have historically examined and thus defined women from the male perspective as either a partial man or as the second aspect of opposite principles[1][1] (35). Finn’s On the Oppression of Women in Philosophy – Or, Whatever Happened to Objectivity? contains a syllogism that demonstrates that philosophy’s omission of women:
In Joan Scott’s article Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis, she analyzes the root of gender and its relation to power. Gender is assumed to be directly linked with sex, but Scott asserts that sex and gender are quite distinct; while sex is a biological phenomenon, gender is a socially constructed power hierarchy and it is not biologically predetermined. Gender is used to create and enforce hierarchical relations of power between men and women, and as a result, women become subordinate to men. The hierarchies tend to be accepted as natural, but in actuality, they are socially determined relations that have no relation with sexuality. For Scott (1986), there are four important components of defining gender: 1) culturally common
Immediately after suggesting that feminist discourse in regards to gender is shifting to a global South perspective, Connell argues that “there cannot be a uniform 'Southern theory of gender'” (61). This statement suggests that not only is there already a uniform Northern theory of gender – which in itself is simplistic and inaccurate – but that the global North is unified as a colonizing force. As a consequence, the voices of scholars and of whole communities within North America and Europe who frame their works in a decolonizing space are silenced. Furthermore, by establishing a dichotomy between the “North” and “South” in the first place Connell groups together several different cultures and peoples who have their own unique perspective and ideologies of gender and gender performance. This invalidates her own point that academia would benefit from the different voices and
Women were traditionally seen as the weaker sex – second-class citizens with a lower social status than men. A woman’s place was in the home. Men did the “heavier” labor, like plowing and hunting.
Gil (1985) describes the child protection system as sponsored and sanctioned by the Canadian government to protect and care for children in the event that families are unable to (Nixon et al., 2007). Hence, the role of child protection services is to investigate cases of maltreatment and provide services to ensure children’s safety and well-being. Although protection services offered by different jurisdictions of Canada are varied, the underlying key goal is child well-being (Nixon et al., 2007). A cross-country policy review in 2006 presented that although six of ten Canadian provinces and one territory included CEDV in their definition of maltreatment, they conceptualized the risk to children differently (Nixon et al., 2007). In this respect, Ontario had not defined CEDV as a form of maltreatment in its child welfare legislation (Child and Family Services Act) of 1990 (Nixon et al., 2007). However, the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (2006) incorporated CEDV as a form of emotional harm in its risk assessment tool (Nixon et al., 2007). This guides the child protection authorities in CEDV cases.