The Cultural Construction of Gender and Sexuality

Women were able to won land as seen in Document F. Women also moved out of the domestic sphere and helped with the hard labor, necessary to make a farm run correctly.

The jobs of gathering and growing plants were doled out to the women.  They also

Though women have played an integral part in the history of the discipline of anthropology, it was not until the early 1970’s that the field of anthropology and gender, or feminist anthropology emerged. Sex and gender roles have always been a vital part of any ethnographic study, but the contributors of this theory began to address the androcentric nature of anthropology itself. The substantial gap in information concerning the study of women was perceived as a male bias, a prejudice made more apparent because what little women-centered fieldwork was done received insufficient attention from the academic community. While anthropology was considered one of the more egalitarian fields of study, it was dominated by white, Western males who

This article from “The Real Truth about the Female” by Barbara Ehrenreich targets many beliefs that women were underestimated. The main theory suggested in this document is that, women had to follow the traditional duties. Early theories are being questioned as a result to women proving many things over the years that were often overlooked. Ehrenreich states in his article, “it does strongly suggest that in the Stone Age family, Dad-the-hunter was not the only provider.” There is a great amount of evidence that suggest the theory that women worked as hard as men. Adrienne Zihlman and Nancy Tanner stated “among surviving “hunting” peoples, most of the community’s calories—up to 70%—come from plant food patiently gathered by women.” This fact

Gender is defined as the state of being male or female. In most instances, this state is determined based on the biology of an individual’s genitalia. Those born

Throughout my years as an explorer, I have been to many different countries. I have also come in contact with many people and learned about many different cultures. In most of the cities I have been to, although the type of government system may vary, the one thing that tends to stay the the same throughout these societies are the role of women and how they are treated in the everyday world. Like in my most recent trip to Mexico, I had the opportunity to observe that the role of women was extremely different from the role of men.

Prior to Western colonization, American Indian women played an important role in their communities. Many women were valued for their contributions socially, politically, spiritually, and economically and were viewed as leaders (Poupart p.171). Men and women each held different duties in their communities; women had important tasks to fulfill such as the taking ownership of land, crops, and decision-making. Viewing genders as equals was important in the Native communities because their differences were seen as complementary and balanced when used together. In some communities, women were seen as slightly inferior to men because they contributed offspring in the sacred creation of life. Oral history stories say that women were seen as the wisest of the group. Women were viewed as the “Light of Knowledge” and were said to “come first and light the way for males…because they are not created with an automatic connection to the Atisokanak World” and need to be guided (Boatman p.61). The roles of American Indian women were respected and honored in communities, unlike in Western culture.

soon mysteriously killed after she had spoken out to him. She had been labeled at her

and was accused of conjuring spirits, accused of being a witch. Later, she confessed to

They were regarded as objects to give birth and take care of the family affairs including performing the farm work. They were subjects of their husbands. This was the origin of the patriarchal society in this continent. Africa has been dominated by male folk for since 1500 (Bonnie, 559). This domineering habit has brought with it other characters such as polygamy and society leadership by men only. This left woman without any significance in the political and economic development of the African society. Their place was in kitchen only. Men were the only leaders in the village, county and national level. There was no single women leader. It was regarded as a bad omen for a woman to participate in any political affair. Women had no voice in the society; they could not question the decisions of their husbands or their male grown up

First of all I am going to begin with defining sex and gender. Sex in a sociological perspective is defined as the biological and physiological differences between men and women which are contrasted in terms of reproductive function(Abercrombie et al 2000 :313). On the other hand gender is sociologically conceived as the social roles allocated to men and women in society that is to say gender is learned not innate. However previously it was believed that sex determined gender thus the differences between men and

Unfortunately, the sharp instincts and intelligences of these early women in a way became their downfall, for many historians and archeologists accredit women with the discovery of farming. It is their belief that, while gathering foods for their tribes, women realized the connection between leaving seeds in the ground and the growth of plants. For a while these simple methods of farming were carried out by women, however, as more advancements were made in agriculture it was realized that farming could no longer be performed solely by women, as it demanded large amounts of strength that a woman wasn’t physically capable of. In addition, farming demanded large amounts of time so it began to become an expectation that a woman would remain home and take care of the house and children while her husband worked out in the fields. (Ellis 9) In his article “The Worst Mistake Made in History,” Jared Diamond discusses how women were no longer able to work as effectively, as it was expected of them to have more children, so their bodies as well as health became weakened. (Diamond 65) John R. Lukacs makes comparable discussions to Diamond, in his article, “Fertility and Agriculture Accentuate Sex Differences in Dental Caries Rates,” saying that women suffered from even greater health problems than their male counterparts and as a result the numbers of women in society were reduced. (Lukacs 901) It was

Judy Chicago (artist, author, feminist and educator) has a career that now spans five decades. In the late 1960s, her inquiry into the history of women began a result of her desire to expose the truth of women’s experiences, both past and present. She still continues on a crusade to change the perception of women from our history, “Women’s history and women’s art need to become part of our cultural and intellectual heritage.” (Chicago, 2011) Through our history women - their struggles, accomplishments and contribution to history, have been overlooked, downplayed and even completely written out of a male dominated society and culture. In anthropologist Sherry Ortner’s 1974 essay “Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?” she supports this view, writing “…woman is being identified with—or, if you will, seems to be a symbol of—something that every culture devalues,” (Ortner, 1974) Where Mendieta's work primarily came from a striving to belong and an understanding of where she came from, I feel that Chicago's aim was to find a place for all women, past and present in this world, starting with herself in the art world. Chicago did explore her peronal heritage in later works entitled 'Birth Project' and 'Holocaust Project'.

Barbara Kruger, artist and theorist, has directed and informed much of the curatorial project. Kruger’s perspectives on feminism speak to

Merriam-Webster provides two definitions for the meaning of gender. The first is simply that gender is a synonym for sex. The second, however, states that gender is “the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex (Merriam-Webster).” This is the definition for gender used in this paper, while sex is defined separately, as the biological differences between males and females.