Gender Role and Women Essay

People have mostly seen women inferior to men because women have been thought of as simple-minded and could not take care of themselves. Shakespeare’s Hamlet shows how men treated and thought of women during the 1500s. There was an order most did not interfere with; however, some did. In the 1500s, women were supposed to conform to men’s wishes. Throughout the play, Ophelia first obeyed her father and brother’s wishes, ignored the social norms later, and then went mad, which caused her to never gain her own identity.

Throughout Western thought to 1600, women are portrayed as second-class citizens, their roles in society were inferior to those of the dominant groups in society. Women during this time filled traditional roles of caretaking, birthing and manual labor. They were tools used in society in the form of property or as a source for bearing children, preferably boys. Women were compared to other luxurious items such as gold, and horses and often praised for their beauty. Although many texts portray women in these subordinate roles, some were referred by name but often times not. Overall women weren’t given access to many positions or resources in society due to the way they were perceived by those dominant in society.

Only men were citizens, only men bore arms, only men could be chiefs or lords or kings. There were exceptions which did not disprove the rule, when wives or widows or mothers took the place of men, awaiting their return or the maturation of a male heir. A woman who attempted to rule in her own right was perceived as an anomaly, a monster, at once a deformed woman and an insufficient male, sexually confused and, consequently, unsafe (Schutte xxiv)".

In the past, women were seen as a part of properties of men. They don’t have rights nor power. At most time, they can’t even help themselves. According to Anthony, who was a famous suffragette during the Progressive Era, which is a period of time people were suffering, ” In case of divorce on account of adultery in the husband, the innocent wife is held to possess no right to children or property, unless by special decree of the court”(“Declaration of Rights for Women”). The author illustrates how women were powerless in the past. The laws were unfair to women, so they can’t help themselves.

Question 1: Men have always been the ones deemed with upmost power over everything in life including law and land. Power is having the ability to influence or control the behavior of people. The relations of man and woman around the time of “The Discord” article were man had complete control especially in marriage. “He has compelled her to submit to laws…withheld from her rights…made her civilly dead…an irresponsible being”. These withdrawals from the text show the relationship between man and wife and how man also has control even over single women. Men controlled the laws these women lived by and kept them from advancing as men were allowed to advance such as in institutions and law making. The Declaration of Sentiments reveled the nature of gender relationships in nineteenth

Historically, the act of defining femininity and what it means to be female was exceedingly important for a woman of the time to know, learn, and understand. By doing so would allow women to remain loyal to the roles they had been “destined” to play and would keep the social order in early modern culture intact. As the social order had been multiple times prior to the era in many cultures, the value of gender is measured by hierarchal status: men were on top because it was considered masculine to be “superior and commanding” (Rose 17), whereas women remain beneath men for women were considered “inferior and subordinate” (Rose 17) and was not suitable to be involved in anything within the domain of

How do women in higher and more powerful leaderships fit into their traditional gender roles, and what types of disagreements or pressure can they possible endure during their leadership role? One of those powerful women is Hillary Clinton former first lady to Bill Clinton, who soon changed her role status from mother and first lady to Secretary Of State; then on to the U.S. Senator of New York. While married to Bill Clinton, Hillary was actively involved in politics while standing by her man Bill Clinton President of the United States; as well as raising their wonderful daughter Chelsea. Soon Hillary decide it was time to put her knowledge of politics to the test on her own, and accepted a position as Chairman of the National Health Care

The roles of men and women in society, though they vary slightly from culture to culture, have been forged in such a way that that they have been ingrained in us, while being nothing more than a social construct, and we appear to be unable to shake them. Although we do try to be accepting of change, the very thought of an adjustment in our perceived gender roles typically results in a reaction that is a cross between a cringe for some and a furrowed brow for others.

Sommers-Flanagan, Rita, John Sommers-Flanagan, and Britta Davis. What's Happening On Music Television? A Gender Role Content Analysis. 1st ed. Springer, 1993. Web. 5 June 2015.

Gender is set of characteristics that may be used to differentiate between female and male through the use of one’s gender or through gender identity therefore.

As a female my gender role greatly affects how I see the world. My aspirations are much different than that of a male. I want to be a mother when I am old enough, I want to have a daughter so I can pick out her girly clothes, and I want to be a wife. This differs from a male who may have the desire to be a working husband with a son or an NBA football star. The difference between these goals of a female versus a male blatantly show that each gender perceives the world differently. This diversity can be seen in countless ways including choosing a career path. My female mindset changes how I think about what I job I want to pursue and how I want to live. Aside from becoming a mother, I want to become a pediatrician, which is a job stereotypically

In this session, I will discuss the gender roles in my family. The definition of gender role is the degree to which a person adopts the gender-specific behaviors ascribed by his or her culture (Matsumoto, D. R., & Juang 2013, 156). For example, traditional gender roles recommend that males are aggressive, angry, and unemotional. It goes further and explains that the male should leave the home every day to make a living and be the main wage earner. The traditional gender role for the female purpose is to stay at home and care for the children. It explains that the female is to be nurturing, caring, and emotional (Matsumoto, D. R., & Juang 2013, 156). These traditional roles for female and male are the opposite of one another. It is believed that the culture is likely to influence our perception about gender role in a family. In my family, my parents utilize the traditional gender role. Growing up, my father went to work every day and my mother stayed home with me and my sister. I believe my parents were influence by their parents and their culture to be traditional gender role parents. My father explained to me that they chose traditional parenting role because both sides of the family utilized traditional parenting gender roles. I believe my parents felt pressure to obtain the gender roles of the mother staying home with the children while the father worked. However, when my younger sister was old enough to go to school, my mother started to work. It was believed that when

The idea of gender is most commonly known as a very simple thing: either male or female. While today we know that is not strictly the case, and that gender is a more fluid thing, that it is more of a spectrum, that was not always a societal acceptance. Even today there is a hesitancy to accept that gender is not as black and white as people think, so the topic of gender in the time of Shakespeare well, one would expect it to be even stricter than the opposition faced today in terms of whether or not gender is more than just male or female. But when looking throughout his works, it can be found that that is not the case. Shakespeare’s characters and stories are of a varying nature, and he plays with the notion of gender binaries and the two-gender paradigm. He can be ambiguous, he can flip traditionally expected roles, he can challenge the notion of gender altogether, it just depends on which of his works is being read. Shakespeare’s approach to gender and its significance, is that of a challenging one. He challenges not only the physical presentation of gender, but also the traditional roles associated with it. He also calls attention to the issue with simply taking gender at face value, at viewing it as a simplistic, shallow concept. Shakespeare showcases the fluidity, and in a way the insignificance, of gender within many of his plays, but this paper will be specifically looking at the two-gender paradigm (not the complete gender spectrum) within Macbeth and As You Like It

These basic and primitive rules that were ingrained in us by nature have been the essence of human civilization. Over the last hundred years, these rules have been broken. Man, through the female protests, were now starting to see that women were so much more than home makers who were being pushed around by man for ages. Women’s voices were starting to be heard. For too long has society deemed what was right for women (whose laws were written by man)? As women gained rights, so did man’s perception on women start to gain more respect. From the days of “Rosie the Riveter”, when women were involved in what was once man’s work, keeping the workforce going at home while the majority of men were off at WWII. To today, where women have almost as many rights as men, the view of society has changed and evolved. Nowadays, it seems that these once set in stone rules are being broken.

In American society, social norms have created distinct gender roles for males and females. These gender roles attribute specific traits and behaviors to each sex that has influenced the way women and men tend to act, think, and behave towards one another. Specifically, these gender roles not only affect helping behavior as the type of help that is given, but also, the help received can depend on the sex of an individual (Eagly and Crawley, 1986).