Gender Differences throughout History Essay examples

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

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.

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

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

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.

Gender has been described as masculine or feminine characteristics that encompass gender identity sex as well as social roles (Nobelius 2004). According to sexologist John Money, there is a difference between gender as a role and the biologically of differences in sex (Udry 1994). Within scholarly disciplines, cultures and contexts, gender frequently has its own mean, contextual frame of reference and the manner in which it is used to describe a variety of issues and characteristics. The sociocultural codes, conventions and the suggested and literal rules that accompany the notion of gender are vast and diverse. There has been and continues to be much scholarly debate regarding the idea of gender and how it has been viewed historically; as well as changes in the grammatical use of the

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.

Prior women utilization to limit their employment inquiries inside the domain of childcare and family obligations. Men utilization to work outside the house and women were the ones who utilization to handle all the family meets expectations. In the rustic zones of the created nations men to a great extent rule the horticultural acts as the horticulture in such nations is exceedingly motorized. For these situation women for the most part relocate to urban territories to make utilization of different open doors. The circumstance in creating and immature nations is very distinctive. The farming division in these nations is less created and is substantially less motorized subsequently women overwhelm the agrarian works here and men move to urban zones looking for occupation and different open doors.

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.

tactful discursive construction of gender relations, as explored by Shields. Thus, this paper will not merely provide an exploration of that binary, and the ways in which it was necessarily conducive of the production of unequal social and economic relations. Rather, this paper will use specific tenants within Shields’ argument to reveal how the discursive methodology via which that gendered binary was produced was as necessarily conducive to the production of inequality, as that gendered binary itself. This paper will specifically utilize Shield’s exploration of the mind/body division, to demarcate how the female/feminized body, and its relationship with reason/emotion worked to produce a female

The history of the world is a complex arrangement of happenings and occurrences that have shaped the current state of civilization. At a fundamental level, history is the driving force behind every element of society that exists today. Within history, there are several factors that have and continue to determine the way in which our society functions. One of the most significant of these factors is gender. Today, conceptions, viewpoints and ideas surrounding gender are always changing. It is this fluidity of thought that ultimately allows society to progress forward and create change. However, gender has not always been as openly discussed. Tracing back through history, gender has consistently been a point of identity among humans.

In “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis,” Joan W. Scott provides many angles to explore the relevancy of gender. The first thing that needs to be examined is her argument. The main argument that Joan W. Scott is trying to make is how beneficial to history using gender as a category for analysis would turn out. Another factor that needs to be made in assessing her article is how she presents her argument and findings. Scott formats her article with a beginning, middle, and end. She begins by defining “gender,” and how that term has been used in general. She goes on to describe some of the theories that have analyzed gender. The next part that she explains is how, of late, politics has been coincided with the analysis of gender. Finally, she ends her paper by providing her bottom-line opinion about the analysis and approach of gender.

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.

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:

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