The Current Gender Roles Of Kenya

From a young age girls were being taught their position in life consisted of taking care of their husband and the children they will provide him. Duties which demanded they remain in their home to complete. Typically the role of the female included being educated by their mother’s on how to sew, quilt,

The Damage of Gender Inequality in Nectar in a Sieve Nectar in a Sieve, a novel by Kamala Markandaya, tells the tale of a woman named Rukmani and the numerous tragedies and challenges she faces in life during a sudden phase of modernization in India, brought on by imperialism. In the novel, Rukmani, born wealthy and well learned, is married off at 12 years old to an older man, a poor tenant farmer named Nathan. Following this, the book goes on to chronicle the struggles she faces, such as poverty, famine, illness, and the death of many loved ones. Because women are considered inferior to men, this causes further hardship (in already difficult circumstances) in Rukmani’s journey. One of the first examples of how sexism leads to further misfortune in Rukmani’s life, is the expectation that women get married at a young age to be a submissive and obedient wife.

She even furthers her argument by saying that this leads to sexual inequality and misogyny. Katha however argues a different side. Katha elaborates that daughters should not define themselves by relating to their mothers, because by doing this she is equating that women must adhere to the traditional values. These traditional values, are the problem with gender difference.

In many shops, there seems to be an obvious separation between boys and girls items, for example, the birthday cards, books, clothes, and toys. This is shown in a variety of ways the boy's items are mainly the color blue and the books have pictures of either action figures, superheroes or tools. Whereas the girl's items are mainly the color pink. The books show pictures of fairies, princess, and Bratz. The cards also have the theme of the color pink for girls and blue for boys. The girl's cards have a lot of sparkles and pretty pictures whereas the boy's cards are covered in camo kind of illustrations and also have action figures on the covers. The children's clothes are separated into sections where there are labels for the boy's clothes and labels for the girl's clothes. The girl's clothing is all pretty and pink, it is covered in sparkles. Whereas boys clothing has camo patterns, blue colors, and pictures of action figures.

In present day all around the world, society has certain expectations for the actions and behaviors of males and females. There are many factors in our everyday lives that contribute to the gender norms that society has set. This essay will discuss how situations in life can play a part in how people treat other people based on their gender. It is believed that males are the leaders of our world, but in present day woman can do as much as men can do. From The Journal of Marriage and Family, Hu states, “Differentiated gender roles in adulthood are rooted in one’s gender role socialization. In order to understand the persistence of gender inequalities in the domestic sphere, we need to examine the gendered patterns of children’s housework time.”(2015, P.1). Gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females that they must be taught. These roles define how females and males are viewed in society, their household, and workplace. In The Journal of Sports behavior by Hardin, he states, “Although gender role differences from biological and “Natural” exists in popular consciousness, research has long demonstrated that instead, many are long time socially constructed… Individuals understand their gender because they are given names and treated in particular ways, such as dress in pink for girls and blue for boys, that reflect social construction of gender. Bandura's social cognitive theory is key in understanding the factors in socialization”(2009, P.3). Bandura's theory of of social cognition is that behavior, environmental events, and cognitive factors are the main keys that shape attitudes and actions of an individual. Although, gender roles play a very big part in our society, specific genders are treated differently while dealing with peer influence, media influence, as well as employment.

In the typical Indian family, gender construction manifests itself especially in the roles of men and women in the household. As Judith Lorber so aptly put, “gender is a process of creating distinguishable social statuses for the assignment of rights and responsibilities” which in turn, creates the social differences that define a “man” and “woman” (Lorber). It is these differences that are used to construct and maintain an established gender order within the family. In the conventional Indian family, the order is such that the roles of the women in the household revolve around the roles of the men. This structure was something that I saw from an early age in my parents’ marriage. Though my parents defied the Indian norm of the arranged marriage, they still represented the quintessential model of an Indian couple in many other ways. My mother left her job to become a stay-at-home mom when I was about six years old. However, even before she left her job, she was implicitly expected by my father to shoulder most of the housework including cooking, cleaning, and caring for my older brother

Although both articles tackle different ideas on the surface, both acknowledge our shifting society deep down. Kilbourne’s article exposes our ever-changing image of women and the consequences that it has brought about for both males and especially the self-image of females. Hymowitz’s article examines a clear result of these specific marketing techniques and how these child-men will continue to live and thrive due to the acceptance of their lifestyle in the media. These two problems are interconnected. Both represent the changes in society that we endure on a daily basis, women who are scrutinized and males that refuse to become adults. The shift in the media's portrayal of women feeds the creation of child-men while the existence of these

Over the course of time, gender roles have always been a popular topic that is either obviously discussed or implied in various literary works. In a great number of literary works, the general expectations of gender roles are strongly criticized. Some of the outstanding representatives of short stories can be “The Dinner Party” by Mona Gardner, “Appointment with Love” by S.I.Kishor, and “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Ronald Dahl. Despite all the differences that are presented in these short stories, a stronger figure of women against society’s expectations is established in all of these works overtime. This concept is revealed through the distinct characterization, the central conflicts presented, and how these stories are resolved.

Where the BaMbuti are foragers and therefore need the help of the women in order to survive it is inevitable that the women would gain some status in society that they lack in the village where they are cultivators and control to some extent the amount of food they get. There are still differences, some things that only men are allowed to do, but it is minimal in the forest and more pronounced in the village. In all aspects of life these gender roles influence how men or women are allowed to act and what they must do as they

There are traditional gender roles for both men and women that where designed to define the difference between genders. Males are expected to separate themselves from anything deemed feminine such as dolls. They should also have a successful occupation, one that provides not just for them but also a family. Finally men should display a demeanor of confidence, toughness and self-reliance while not expressing emotions or being sensitive unless the male desires being humiliated. Females should be attentive, physically attractive listeners who shower their male counterparts with affection after every accomplishment. She also should put her families, to include children, need before her own. It is also important to note that the traditional woman is not competitive as that is a trait reserved for males. Stressors accompany individuals trying to fulfill what are conceived traditional genders by place restrictions on expanding outside what is preconceived. Depression, confusion, and hopelessness can result as persons try to adhere to what is deemed acceptable by

Consequently, this mindset, which is heavily based on tradition, prevented little girls from exploring their talents and capabilities because their fathers, brothers and sometimes even mothers decide 12 years is old enough to be women, force them to quit school and possibly even marry them off. Additionally, this form of discrimination, which is not practiced only by men but women as well, denied women certain academic opportunities. Therefore, a large number of women in those communities are hurdled from reaching their full potential and partaking in the improvement and development of our society and country.

The ideas that have been constructed surrounding gender within Africa has severely impacted the well-being and disempowered the women and children living within this culture. Significantly less girls go to school, women earn less money than men for paid labor, harmful traditional practices affect their health, and certain cultural norms act as a hindrance to women moving ahead in society. But the larges areas of disempowerment remain in areas such as education and the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). Common events such as rape, torture and violence are all detailed through the biography Go Go Mama by Sally Sara. The novel tells the story of Eugenie Muhayimana who survived the Rwandan Genocide by being forced into being a sex slave to the Hutu people but in the process contracting HIV. The inequality between men and women is extremely prevalent within the culture of Africa and as a result of this women are disempowered greatly.

Majority of the ancient societies portrayed similarities in the presentation of women and girls. In other words, women and girls in the traditional communities were given similar roles and were regarded as the inferior members of the society. Men were viewed as members of the superior gender and due to this; they were given the primary responsibilities in the society and were also regarded as the heads of the family and the entire community. In most cases, women took the roles and responsibilities of housewives, caretakers, nurturers, reproducers, and mothers while men were given the responsibility of managing the society. The classification of diverse roles for women and men was destructive on the side of the females as men sought to dominate them, take advantage of them and even oppress them and this resulted in the case of gender imbalance and inequality. It is clear that men were insensitive about this division and hence scholars rose to represent the fate of women through writing. The Tale of Kieu by Nguyen and the Separate Ways by Chiyo portray women as oppressed, voiceless and members of an inferior gender.

An analysis of example can be derived from the aforementioned discriminatory sexist roles in India that prior to globalization highly favored the male population verses the female population. The female population in India has previously been less than second class citizens. Indian women's cultural roles have been previously defined by traditional customs that are centuries old and no longer apply in this day and age. Previous to globalization, Indian women were to take total domestic responsibility. They were not allowed formal education as the majority of teachers and pupils were male, and the chances of a female remaining chaste was slim in those settings, and related to tradition, females

8). The traditional views of gender roles are indeed quite different from the modern views. The men in society are the bread-winners where as the women take care of the children and home. There are basic and common work roles, however in terms of behaviour and involvement there are gender role distinctions. The sex roles generally play out in modern society as well, some sex roles and stereotypes for girls are that they are “nonaggressive, nonathletic, emotionally expressive, tender, domestic, and nurturing. Boys on the other hand are “aggressive, value achievement, attain goals through conflict, and work towards monetary success” (Whicker and Kronenfeld, 1986; pp. 8). The males in the society are “emotionally anesthetised, aggressive, physically tough and daring, unwilling or unable to give nurturance to a child” (Lewis and Sussman, 1986; pp. 1). These traits are carried out by this particular gender mostly outside the society to demonstrate their strength. Those individuals who ignore to carry out these personality traits are seen as weak and unmanly. The women on the other hand are given the responsibility of looking after the family and are supposed to have the opposite personality traits. For instance a woman can show emotions but not outside of the family because of the shame that would bring to the