Women Across Cultures Face Similar Forms Of Oppression

For centuries, women have been treated with inequality and denied basic rights that men are given. However, when World War 11 began on September 10, 1939, things began to change. Canada was still struggling with the remnants of the Great Depression, and out of 11 million people, 900,000 were unemployed. 20% of that number were women. There were only 600,000 working ladies, but they made up the small portion of 17% of the labour force. As the men left for war, the females took over most of the jobs in the factories. Many even said they did a better job than the men did. Over time, they began to work a variety of jobs that they were not able to before, but it wasn’t enough. Even though by 1944, the end of the war, the number of women working

Half the Sky; Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Pulitzer Prize winning authors, Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn relates the daily abuse and massacre that women have to endure in the developing world. In order to highlight this issue, Kristof and WuDunn successfully raise awareness on gender inequality by outlining many ways in which human rights are inflicted on women. The first section of the book employs a compare/contrast methodology between, the lives of poverty-stricken girls, and the lives of successful girls who managed to escape oppression.

Despite women’s hard work, their efforts continue to go unrecognized. This is evident by the legal concept of unpaid and paid work. This legal concept definitely ignores the women’s work and renders it invisible, essentially disproportionately exploiting the work of women. Moreover, since unpaid work is presumed to not contribute to the capitalist economy and does not involve exploitation for surplus profit, it is undervalued. Interestingly, despite not being able to directly “profit” from unpaid work, the state has managed to find a way to still exploit the work of women. Accordingly, Waring (1998) argues that because domestic work is unpaid, it is seemingly a form of enslavement where women’s partners, families, their communities,

I like to think of myself as a strong woman, and I admit that I’ve been accused more than once of lacking a certain feminine quality. I’ve been raised to believe that I do not need a man, nor should I shy away from tasks such as earning a degree or retiling a floor; therefore, it is difficult for me to suppress my beliefs as Koly endures oppression simply because she is female. The first fifty pages provides a glimpse into another culture, and although terrifying to most American women, this novel definitely lends itself to deep discussion as well as a comparison to feminism within our own culture. I find it important to remember that Koly is not living a “wrong” life; her life is just different, and I can’t emphasize enough the importance for students to practice acceptance and also a willingness to understand others.

Robbins' choice to employ girls whose stories vastly differ from each other illustrates the different struggles girls face around the world, be it physical violence, second-class rights, or otherwise. Presenting stories of girls who are relatively well-off by developing country’s standards, such as Wadley from Haiti and Mariama from Sierra Leone, alongside those who weren't nearly as fortunate, such as Suma from Nepal and Amina from Afghanistan, opens up the viewers’ eyes to the ways misogyny manifests itself in different cultures. These variances are representative of the wide array of real-life conundrums girls are presented with in developing countries; they help lead the audience to the conclusion that we must begin at the root of the problem and work from the bottom up in order to make a fundamental change in education systems

In the US, we think that women are oppressed in the middle east. Some of the stereotypes that we use against the women who live in the middle east are that they are not given fair treatment from all men. Some men are do not think the same way.The men (in the middle east) treat them like slaves.For example, women should just stay at home and take of their children. This would be an accurate statement for some of the women ,but the women think that there is nothing wrong with staying at home. Another statement that we misinterpret is that women are not educated because they stay at home with their children. I found from CNN that two-thirds of women make up the majority population of Middle Eastern Countries when enrolling in college . Next statement,

In today’s society women have it rougher than men. Women have it rougher than men in emotional, occupational, and life situation. When going to school or an activity, women are treated differently. If a girl sent nudes or had sexual relationship with a boy other girls would perceive her with a derogatory terms. If men did the exact same actions, they would be applauded for their actions or accepted in society. Women tend to follow other just to feel like they fit in with everyone else. To pursue their career, they tend to work harder then men because they are already judge to not be as good as men. Like in the movie Patch Adams, there were about two girls in the med school and all the rest were men. The norm of life is also harder for

In order to further comprehend the reason for women’s oppression, one must first understand the root and history of this problem. Sexism and the idea of patriarchal societies have been around since ancient times. Journalists of the Macmillan Social Science Library define sexism as discrimination based on gender. They mention that such types of discrimination are often directed toward women: “Sexism may occur in major life events and in everyday behavior. Acts of rape, abuse, and sexual harassment are generally committed against women. In their daily lives, women have to deal with suggestive remarks about their appearance, sexist portrayals in the media, and pressures to behave in a way that reinforces gender stereotypes” (Macmillan Social

The oppression and degradation to women by society has changed over the course of half a century. Women in the 1960s and 1970s gained more freedom to choose their paths in life. Women have obtained the choice to use contraception and resort to abortion. Women's lives are no longer defined solely by marriage and children. Women have the right to decide to pursue an education and degree. In some countries women can even marry other women. In the 1960s, women broke the dress codes, cut their hair short, and in a blink of an eye business women started to wear business attire to work . The “working woman” began to shape herself slowly into society. Despite our country being dominated by a small group of rich men, it is now the “norm” for a

The oppression of women is due to a ‘global culture machine’, which consists of the advertising industry, the cosmetic industry and communications media (Chapkis, 1986). From this, a constricted, westernised ideal of beauty is encouraged to women worldwide. Chapkis analyses rituals women go through to achieve ‘perfection’ such as anorexia or bulimia, using these to reveal the levels of oppressiveness these regimes are for women. “Women are entrapped in the beauty system, but there are possibilities for change if women are willing to accept themselves and their bodies as they really are” (Chapkis, 1986). For this to be possible ‘beauty secrets’ (the processes females go through to conform to the cultural ideal) would have to be carefully scrutinized

Women across the world encounter stereotypes. In the United States, our biggest stereotype has to do with women’s physical appearance, it is frowned upon to be overweight and to have curves. The United States is seen as a modern country and the idea of a domestic household during the upraise of the Feminist Movement during the 1960s-70s. That is the struggle that India is going through currently. Instead of going with the wave of the new movement towards modernization, half of the country is oppressing it and the other half is embracing it. The World Before Her is a documentary over the two separate paths of two young women that are at the heart of the transitioning of their country. One young woman has hopes to become a model and win the nationally known pageant “Miss India” which is equivalent to Miss America. The second young woman is the exact opposite. She is tomboyish, she will kill to keep her countries values as well as train other young girls to hold the same values as she does. The documentary was made to target the eye of people like you and I, it is a prime example of the best of both worlds. The people of India may benefit from seeing this film because it shows how their country is struggling with the preservation of their culture but on the other hand, Americans may feel offended because the Indians that are interviewed make it seem as though being modern is a bad thing. Modernization is not a bad thing, without it, people will not be able to adapt to their

With the increase in current events taking place in the world in regards to religion, it is essential that the common public be informed with correct information about religion. Unfortunately, it is known that news gives false or one sided ideals of Islamic nations. News makes it especially difficult for its audience to understand the differences between culture and religion. Writers have the power to correct this misconception through their works, even if it is fictional writing. Author 's take on a big responsibility of giving their readers an insightful and true perspective on culture and religion. Popular scholars often choose to talk against Islam, while there is still a lack of scholars talking positively. For example, “Ayaan Hirsi Ali, [an Irani author], renounces Islam because she says it condones violence toward women, often reinforce rather than expand Western expectations about the women” (Smith). Ali is strong in her beliefs and chooses to express them to people in a way that they can understand. Similar strength is not publicized enough when it comes to supporting the true ideals of Islam. Though Nawal El Saadawi identifies as a Muslim woman, she gives off a similar impression of Islam as Ali. Saadawi shows many of the negative aspects of Islam and emphasizes Western stereotypes. By using the most religious male characters in her novel, Woman at Point Zero, to

Feminist perspective developed with the ideology that women face large amounts of inequalities in a patriarchal society. They aimed to address and rid the social world of this oppression of women by men. According to Bishop, (2015) “oppression occurs when one group of people use different forms of power to keep another group down in order to exploit them. The oppressor uses the power; the oppressed are exploited” (p. 133-134). Oppression must be by individual experience and not grouped into being the same for all. This includes understanding the original ideology of feminist theory being critiqued as only considering the experiences of middle class, white women. That black women, of lower class experienced oppression much different from the other women. Women are oppressed, thus has to be understood in a different construct that women are similar in some sources, experience of oppression but also experience oppression very differently from one individual to another. Feminist theories have further been expanded do its continuation throughout society and decades to encompass many more issues and arenas than just men and women relationships. Now it seeks to understand and address oppression based on culture, race, class, etc and not only for women but for all. Therefore, Bishop (2014) outlines five components that seem common to all forms of oppression and serve to maintain its presence in society.

The importance of educating, encouraging and treating our youth as equals for engagement in political conversation and encouragement for political office is important in order to diversify our political future. The political ambition gap between women and men is complex and cannot be attributed to one specific idea but rather a culmination of the traditional family roles that women experience growing up, the masculinized ethos that’s desired for political leaders and the gendered psyche that could prohibit women’s ambition (Lawless 166). The most compelling portion of this combination of deterrents is part of the traditional family roles that women experience, childhood upbringing can have an effect on what women choose to pursue as adults and family dynamics are rooted in children starting from a young age. The cultural norms of how women are and should be treated in a society are the foundation to who those women may become. Without women in leadership roles, public policy is made by men and may not consider policy that would benefit women and increase diversity in politics.

I had remembered what I had forgotten---what I loved. My ears were picking up this sound that resembled a Chukar bird. As I lifted my head and opened the eyes that enabled me to see a world of hope, I saw the dense steam flowing from the tea pot. I poured myself a warm glass of tea. As the clicks and clacks of the keyboard dashed within my mind, I started reading the daily “Pars Time” I saw this headline “Boko Haram currently has 219 schoolgirls held hostage.” I could feel my blood vessels dilate, the sudden heat pressing to my body, the burning of my eyes just like boiling water on thin skin. I opened a blank document and started typing the words that will mean something to someone---anyone. Why would an individual harm someone else for any purpose? Why must there be an order of life that molds people into