The Dressmakers Of Khair Khana

Throughout the beginning of her speech, Kelley makes use of disturbing anecdotes that appeal to women's emotions. She first illustrates that while they “sleep, several thousand little girls” are “working in textile mills” throughout the night. This use of little girls working highlights that children all around the United States are not sleeping but are operating machines: making clothes for the adults to purchase. She incorporates this factor in order to encourage the concerned mothers to help alter labor laws so that their children are not working twelve-hour shifts. Kelley continues to describe how little girls of “six or seven years,” who are “just tall enough to reach” the machines, will be working eleven hours a day. Kelley’s use of the children's height emphasizes how as soon as children reach a certain height, they are being deprived of their childhood and sent to work in the factories. She continues to repeat the phrase that “while [they] sleep” little girls and boys “will be working” in the mills. Kelley’s continual use of this phrase evokes sympathy in the women so they can help change the lives of children by amending the harsh child labor laws.

It is commonly taught in textbooks or shown in the media that colonial mothers are always taking part in childcare, but in reality the “modern working women” (1) spends more time taking care of their children. During the hours that modern women are not working, they are usually taking care of the children and doing household work to manage the household, in which the “traditional family” seems more fitting in categorizing the modern family, rather than the colonial family. The colonial women did not have to worry about taking care of the children, because they usually gave the task of caring for the children to the servants or older siblings. Moreover, the traditional family are usually perceived as a family where the husband and wife are role models of a loving, caring, and supportive relationship for their children. This leads the children to act in the same positive way with others by observing the relationship between their parents. Interestingly, the “traditional” families in the past were not traditional, as women and children were advised to be obedient to their husbands, otherwise they would be abused and

In the 1950’s through the 1960’s women were not respected in there everyday lives, in the job field or in general. They did not have the rights they deserved, so during this time the “women’s movement” began. Women fought for their rights and fought for the self-respect that they thought they deserved. In the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the character Mama, expresses her feelings of pushing or extracting a new side for a woman. Her role explains that woman can be independent and can live for themselves. Through her behavior in this play she demonstrates that women can support and guide a family. Mama is in charge of the family, which is unusual, since men are traditionally the “head of a family”. Through Mama’s wisdom

Women’s privileges in society transformed due to new opportunities that enabled possession of freedom and high esteem. Within Sub-Saharan Africa, if a woman was raised in a blacksmith family, she would enjoy special treatment since she obtained amazing pottery skills. Furthermore,

The hardest part about growing up is realizing how difficult it is to live up to society’s expectations. Canadian society proclaims to “live your dreams”, but in reality, most are influentially prohibited to a role that the majority anticipates them to be at. Author Joseph Boyden conveys this issue through his literary novel, “Three Day Road.” Undoubtedly, the biggest factor that determines a person’s role is gender. During the early 1900s, this following scenario has generally been the case: father worked to support the family, while mother stayed at home to take care of the children. At that time however, women were treated with lower standards than men; they couldn’t vote, were paid significantly lower, and had little authority over the

The theme of “voiceless woman” throughout the book “the woman warrior” is of great importance. Maxine Kingston narrates several stories in which gives clear examples on how woman in her family are diminished and silenced by Chinese culture. The author not only provides a voice for herself but also for other women in her family and in her community that did not had the opportunity to speak out and tell their stories.

Having moved far from the misery of conventional archetypal women of long back, they think that its hard to stay as housewives. They soon find that their endeavors to accommodate themselves to homemaking just add to their sufferings. When they find that surrendering professional roles does not make them in at any rate happy at home, the female heroines look to escape from their domestic duties too. Giving up their roles as wives and mothers, they swing back to their parent's' homes. The parental homes get to be havens for their fretful souls. There they start their quest for knowledge and for an answer for their private hardships.

For centuries, women have had the role of being the perfect and typical house wife; needs to stay home and watch the children, cook for husbands, tend to the laundry and chores around the house. In her short story “Girl”, Jamaica Kincaid provides a long one sentence short story about a mother giving specific instructions to her daughter but with one question towards the end, with the daughter’s mother telling her daughter if she had done all the instructions to become a so called “perfect” woman, every man would want her. Kincaid’s structuring in “Girl,” captures a demanding and commanding tone. This short story relates to feminist perspectives. The mother expects a great deal from her daughter to have a certain potential and she does not hesitate to let her daughter understand that. As a matter of fact, the story is about two pages long, made into one long sentence - almost the whole time the mother is giving her daughter directions to follow - conveys a message to the reader that the mother demands and expects great potential in her daughter. The daughter is forced to listen and learn from what her mother is telling her to do to become the perfect housewife. Throughout the story, Kincaid uses the symbols of the house and clothing, benna and food to represent the meanings of becoming a young girl to a woman and being treated like one in society. Women are portrayed to appeal to a man to become the ideal woman in society, while men can do anything they please.

Cultural norms mould the behavior and personalities of people in their societies. With the introduction of modernization and globalization into cultures, change in societies develop. Women play an important role in many cultures and with advancement in time, the roles that they may have traditionally play may evolve. The ethnographies, Wayward Women written by Holly Wardlow and Juki Girls, Good Girls by Caitrin Lynch, both discuss the transformations which ensue among women’s gender roles on both the Huli culture of Papua New Guinea and Sri Lankan Bhuddisim respectively, as a result of both modernization and globalization.

Throughout the years poverty has played an important role in changing traditions and cultures. Poverty has changed the role of women and their ways of thinking. In “No Name Woman”, Maxine Hong Kingston showed an example of how poverty changed the responsibilities of women in a small village in China. According to the narrator’s mother, the women in this Chinese village, during the twentieth century, were to get married for one night and then all the men leave to America, to work there and send money home. The need for money gave women no choice but to obey. They did not choose whether they want their men to leave them or not. They were not asked if they wanted to get married or not. Because women could not go through the pain of hunger,

Because of today’s society, its standards and how we treat young girls and women, mothers want to protect their daughters with a good reputation and want to be appreciated by the men in their lives. In some cases, mothers can be stern on their daughters, because they want to teach them to be a better woman that they once were. Sometimes, mothers have to be considerate when trying to educate their daughters about the real world. In other words, parents help their children make the right decisions, but it is the children’s choice to do what is best for them. In conclusion, “Girl” is a perfect archetype to show that young girls are trained a particular way to become a woman that are mostly skilled in household chores with a non-promiscuous

Heroes, kings and presidents, for so long men are the protagonist of the stories. Across the world and through the centuries, women have always been situated below men. Women were considered the weak sex, they are portrayed as delicate, obedient, naive and passionate. “Never trust in women; nor rely upon their vows” (44). As the wives of the kings on The Arabian Nights, whose passion brought them to cheat on both their husbands. They ended up being executed because they threatened the kings’ power. Or bringing danger into the families, as the wives of Kasim and Ali Baba, who wouldn’t think of the consequences of their actions and would act by the pure instinct of greed and naiveness. Yet, seldomly acknowledged, women have had to step up to fix troubled situations, the few stories told of women of scarce resources who have manage to triumph over the standardized society. This not only shows how women take advantage of the resources at their reach but how their

Women have always been treated differently from our male counterpart. As a woman, we are automatically born with a strike on our back, and as an African-American, we are seen at the very bottom of the totem pole. The trials and tribulations that we are put through no man could possibly withstand. In “Homegoing”, many issues that are still prevalent in today’s society is discussed. The author of the novel touch bases on the importance of family, cultural heritage, and gender inequality. Gender inequality is one of the main issues that women today face. In the beginning of the novel, the women of the village were controlled by the men in all aspects of life. Every move they made were scrutinized by their man counterparts. As the book progressed throughout the decades, the women were still facing issues that the women of today face.

Fortunately, after several centuries of living in obscurity as housewives and suppressing their intellectual, artistic, and full access to cultural events. Of course, as women in all ages are intelligent human beings, there were some that succeed in art and as professionals. Unfortunately, the great majorities were ostracized and consider as the ideal worker for the kitchen, taking care of home, and nurturing their children. Moreover, they have no civil and educational rights. Even until the dawn of the 20th century women have to live under the shadow of men, as the patriarchal system demanded women’s dependence.

The books I’ve chosen to review are set on two different continents. This makes the comparison of the lives of women across the world more efficient and broader. What makes the comparison more practical, realistic and interesting is the fact that the characters in the two books 'The Woman Warrior ' and 'Wild ', lived in the same century. The authors specifically bring out the duties and the expectation that mothers were held to in the upbringing of their daughters as at that time and place. The authors, however, present the picture of motherhood in a fairly narrow view. They ignore the role of mothers in the upbringing of their sons and instead dwell on their duties and responsibilities in the bringing up of their daughters (Kingston & Gordon 2005). Therefore, I chose to compare how the theme of motherhood has been portrayed in the two ethnically diverse texts.