Sita As The Ideal Woman In Valmiki's Ramayana

Whereas in recent decades major strides toward gender equality have been made, sociologists are quick to point out that much remains to be done if inequalities in the United States are ever to be eliminated. Behind much of the inequalities seen in education, the workplace, and politics is sexism, or prejudice and discrimination because of gender. Fundamental to sexism is the assumption that men are superior to women.

According to Karen Horney in chapter 12 of The Distrust Between the Sexes, “Even men who consciously have a very positive relationship with women and hold them in high esteem as human beings, harbor deep within themselves a secret distrust of them; and how this distrust relates back to feelings toward their mothers, which they experienced in their formative years.” This is one of the many examples of when Karen Horney relates the relationship between men and women to one that stems from when they were both younger. “And, although impressive gains were made by women, there are still significant inequalities that must be addressed. In this context, the focus often turns to the pay gap between men and women, which is widely discussed in both academic and practice-oriented fora.” (Public Personnel Management). A lot of people in the country today are better about equality between men and women, but men are still payed more than women in some jobs and women want to be payed the same as men for the work they do. Civil Rights in America wrote this, “Persons who claim sex discrimination in the form of a violation of the act must prove that their basic job duties were equal to that of a higher-paid employee of the opposite

Ramayana, translated by William Buck, is an ancient Indian epic telling the story of a prince named Rama who fights against his adversary, Ravana. Although there are many important female characters throughout the book, they are often seen as subordinate to their male counterparts where intelligence and strength are concerned. One character who proves this stereotype wrong is Sita, Rama’s wife, who often shows that she has the capacity of being just as powerful as the men of the story. By being more mindful than most people around her, Sita defies the expectations that many characters have placed on her. Sita lets the reader see another side of women’s power and shows us the strength that women could have. The reason that Sita proves to be powerful is that she seems to have an understanding of the deeper meaning of her life; precisely the quality that men don’t expect her to have.

Women continue to face disadvantages in the workplace in regards to not receiving equal pay as well. There are many instances where women have the same or more qualifications to do a job than their male counterparts but do not receive the same pay. This difference in pay is not only related to gender differences but also racial differences. Women employees of different racial backgrounds tend to earn less money than their white female and male counterparts. Many women of color often face discrimination when applying to jobs and are overlooked for a position despite having the qualifications to do the work. When they are hired to these occupations they are not receiving the same pay as their white female counterparts. This double bind that minority women face within the work place continues to lead to economic hardships. Regarding women in the workplace in general, due to society’s high regard for men they are often not promoted to positions of authority or receive equal pay because people assume that women are inferior workers. (Buchanan, p205-207)

Meaning women have additional problematic issue then man. For example in education women face more obstacles as faculty rather when in manager and directors in corporate America. Even though there been great progress in the workplace, most jobs are segregated by sexes. There is wag gaps, the average women have to work roughly 4 months extra every year to make the same wage as man. For example, when the educational attainment increases the gender pay decreases for women no matter what levels of education than men. In other words, women earn 77cents for every dollar man earn and put in their pocket (Benokraitis, 2010, p.160-161). Discrimination where both woman and man share in the workplace is the glass ceiling and glass escalator. The glass ceiling being, “women efforts to scale organizational and professional hierarchies but cant because they are constrained by invisible barriers to promotion in their careers, caused mainly by sexist attitudes of men in the highest position” Similarly, men that choose to go into position like nurse and librarians encounter the glass escalator mostly vituperative criticism from the public when they are in the most female-identified specialties” “Therefore man are pressured to move out of the most female-identified areas, and up to those regarded as more legitimate and prestigious for men” (Williams, 1992, p.

The Ramayana is an Ancient Indian epic poem that follows the story of a young prince named Rama who is a mortal incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. The plot follows a narrative that starts from his first time outside the royal palace, through his banishment from the kingdom and his quest to save his beloved wife Sita from Ravana, the evil King of Lanka, all the way to his coronation as King of Ayodhya, the kingdom from which he was originally banished. Throughout the whole narrative, there is one factor that remains constant, the role of women in the culture. The acceptance, or rejection of these cultural values by the women directly corresponds with how their character is perceived by the reader and how their role directly influences the

Gender can happen in the real world which can lead to personal experiences. I have experienced some gender inequality throughout my life and have had family situations since I have been alive. For instance, my parents lived in a time where men went to work and the women had to clean, cook, and stuff around the house. I have experienced some problems myself by my brother and I having to do outside yard work while my sister only does inside work. She claims that yard work is “for men and it’s a man 's job.”. What I have to say about that is that men and women don 't need to do work based off if it is a man or woman’s job, work is work and you shouldn’t base it off gender inequality. Another situation I was faced with was when my mom was trying to get a job, she was trying to get a job at selling Tupperware. She was faced with “you can’t sell Tupperware because you are a woman and people don 't buy stuff off of women.”. She sticked with her gut and went for it, now she is very successful in her business and doesn’t let what a guy said to her stop her.

Women in the United States have acquired constitutional rights over the time; however, discrimination still exists. Sexism occurs frequently in the workplace. In fact, sexism is one of the main barriers that women face. For example, women in the same job as men usually earn less, even though both have the same education and skills that are require for completing the job. Indeed, paying women less than men for the same job is a blatant discrimination that could be solve by providing equality among genders. Sexism is a term that describes the inequality among genders. According to Guynn (2013) the issue of sexism occurs in many companies. Men usually think that women are not capable of completing certain task because they might not to be strong

With the majority of law based rights already having been granted to women, more focus will be put on equalizing the individual perception of gender. Although it isn’t legal to discriminate against women for the amount of work they do, or to give better jobs to men, more women are currently and will continue to push for these thoughts to cease to exist at all. As of 1963, the Equal Pay Act requires that men and women doing equal work must receive equal pay (Cunnea 9). With men and women receiving equal pay for the same work, the only things that should end up mattering for employment other than the usual experience, qualifications, and reviews of past management are an individual person’s work ethic and

In modern america sexism is slowly diteriating, but it has not complitly disappeared. Women have worked hard to become astronaut, Ceos, presidentsdoctors and more, but even with these accomplishments women are still discriminated against. Women face a variety of stereotypes in the work place that prevent them from progress, some company's really think that women don't need equal pay because they are not the head of the house hold and their husbands paycheck should do the job. Other business corporations believe that women can not committed to a job because they are the primary caregiver of their children which causes companies to lose money every time there is an emergency. "The paradox is that the world of rigid and hierarchical sex roles

There is change concerning perspective on gender inequalities in schools. I In and article written by Diane Reay, called “Nice Girls” “Girlies,” and “Tomboys”: Gender Discourses, Girls’ Cultures and Femininities in the Primary Classroom, explains that contemporary gender power relations within an elementary classroom, is more complicated than “girls versus boys”. Reay found that girls were split into identifiable groups, each group defining how feminine they were or weren’t. She concluded that gender either operates as oppositions or hierarchy or most commonly both at the same time. These studies can lead us into why later on in life, during the time we are looking for jobs and professional work, men and women are seen on different playing fields. When you think of a CEO of a company or of world political leaders, does a male or female come to mind? Many, if not most of us, see these positions as being held by men. Even though we are approaching the twenty-first century, women in our society are still not equal to men when it comes down to the professional world. This discrimination in the workplace results in women not receiving the same benefits that men do. In certain cases women do the same job, for the same amount of hours, and still do not receive the same pay for their work. The average women’s paycheck is usually less than the average man, consistent with any field of work. Is there a

I have seen the struggles for equality to men in many aspects. Regardless of the great strides that women have achieved today, it is still hard to find equal opportunity and to be fairly recognized. Some of the areas where gender inequality is very prevalent are in areas such as, equal pay in the workplace, professional & education careers, household work, sexism and discrimination just to name a few. Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender.[1] In this passage I will briefly elaborate on the areas outlined earlier to show the various degree of inequality and explore the path that women have taken to achieve equality. Additionally I will focus on the economic growth as a dependent variable and stereotype as the independent variable.

The Ramayana is an Indian epic which demonstrates what it means to be the perfect man or woman in Indian culture. Due to the story’s mass popularity, there have been many renditions created about it. One of those versions is Sita Sings the Blues, an animated film version of The Ramayana created by Nina Paley in 2008. Because of the significant time difference between The Ramayana and the modern Sita Sings the Blues, the values presented in the two works differ, as indicated in several ways. One particular event within the two interpretations that displays both similarities and differences is when Sita is captured by Ravana.

Social status and structures have definitely shaped the construction and experience of gender inequality. Men and women are constantly analyzed, compared, and grouped together in society. The result of this yields discrepancies in how sexes are viewed by society. Throughout my examination and explanation of gender inequality, I concluded both men and women are victims to gender inequality.

The concept of gender denotes the distinction between culturally driven and created roles of masculinity and femininity. These specific and normalized attitudes and behaviors transcend and effect how differently men and women live their lives. Based on society’s continual re-enforcement of such gender stereotypes, we see an on-going dilemma of gender inequality. Though some may argue that men experience gender inequality, this seems to exist on a much more invasive level for women. As of recently, the awareness of gender inequality in the workplace has increased. With the fight for equal pay and equal respect, society is already making strides towards the equality of women. With that being said, one aspect of gender inequality that seems