Red Azalea was published in 1994. Something that affects the book historically is that the China Cultural Revolution was mentioned in the book, because she had to go through the hardships of living during that period of time. 4.) Since this is a memoir of Anchee Min’s life growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution, I don’t think there’s much bias in the book, because she lived through it. It reminds me of Diary of Anne Frank.
Women are more often target of sexism; men can be victims of sexist assumptions. Examples of sexism directed against men are the assumption that men should not be employed in certain female dominated occupations, such as a nurse or elementary school teacher. The belief is that somehow more harmful for families when female soldiers are killed in battle than male soldiers. Sexism is interwoven with patriarchy- a hierarchical system of social organization in which men control cultural, political and economic structures. By contrast, matriarchy is the hierarchical system of social organization in which women control cultural political and economic structures; however few (if any) societies have been organized in this manner.
The gender roles within this story raise questions about what the reader believes were the roles of specific people. The overall values and experiences of immigrants in the story make the story seem more realistic. The topic of gender roles appears early in the novel. Upon Jim Burden’s arrival at his grandparent’s farm, he examines his grandmother. “Her voice was high and rather shrill, and she often spoke with an anxious inflection, for she was exceedingly desirous that everything should go with due order and decorum” (Cather 10).
She also talks about how categories such as gender, race and class are not “free standing distinct systems” but instead “mutually constructing” intersecting systems, which doesn’t play much to her favor since she is a black female. Being that our society is a patriarchy (male dominated) and has been for so long, (women started to get the right to vote in the US in the year of 1920) it may seem odd or even hard when people have to answer up to a woman in charge; because we are just simply not use to it. In Patricia Hill Collins’s article she makes it seem that poverty and low economic opportunities seem inevitable towards black women: “Black men’s lower income meant that the majority of Black women could not marry wealth nor could their mixed-race children inherit it”. It truly seem like an ongoing process since, even their children have to start from
Feminists believe that women are viewed as a socially subordinate, and disadvantaged group compared to men. A main belief of feminism is that men and women are socially formed. This social formation consists of certain social factors that influence how women and men should behave, and
She also suggested that his research was flawed because his research participants were Caucasian males that were well off, and therefore could not present an accurate theory with such limitations on his research. Gilligan suggested that moral development in females goes from selfish, to social morality, and then to principled morality. Her own theory suggests that Kohlberg's theories are gender biased, because he determined that a man's moral judgment rates higher than that of women (Muus, 1988). While men organize their relationships according to hierarchy, women's relationships are based on "interpersonal connectedness, care, sensitivity, and responsibility to people" (Muus, 1988). She theorized that women, because of their caring nature will wait to pass judgment because they understand the complex nature of relationships more than men, who tend to think in a more linear fashion.
Sex-role stereotypes are magnified in male-dominant firms and are harmful to women psychologically as stereotypes generate violence and gender inequality that is a form of exclusion (Forret & Dougherty, 2004). Stereotypes place women in a subordinate position to men in a patriarchal and sexist model in which their function is to serve the other and not to lead (Llopis, 2006). Men can handily adjust to male-dominated structures because they can read masculine culture better than women and because their peers are just as them. Increasing internal visibility is greatly related to the number of promotions and total compensation for men but not for women. There can be several explanations but one explanation might be that the work assignments
The burden of childbirth in ancient societies made women dependant on men's labor, and thus enabled the initial inequality. In this situation women were banished from activities such as hunting and fighting that were seen as man's purpose in his strive to elevate himself from nature. With the shift to agrarian societies and the introduction of the need to plan ahead, women gained importance by providing the continuation of the family/community/species, and her powers were recognized and feared. The response was the objectification of women and their treatment as property at the disposal of men. They were reduced to a mere function, and not an integral part of human existence.
Women are under a constant pressure to adhere to roles that are specific to their gender and so are men. The woman by norm is relegated to the private domain and is allocated the affective role, while the man has full access to the public domain for he plays the role of the bread-winner. Devdutt Pattanaik, in his book, ‘The Pregnant King’, strives to show how gender plays an important part in defining roles and relationships, while at the same time also accounting for the interesting change in gender roles of men and women, which appears extremely contemporary and unthinkable at the time and context in which the story is set. Based at the time of the Mahabharata, Pattanaik’s ‘The Pregnant King’ brings forth a wide new range of ideas that are exceedingly modern in nature. These ideas question the societal norms that privilege the men and not the women, the norms that prevent both men and women from adopting occupations and indulging in activities that majorly interests them.
However, women are taking on more and more leadership roles; society is being forced to reexamine the assumption of men being the only effective leaders. Research on gender differences in leadership has been conflicting. Some states that women have different leadership style of leadership than men. Some states there are no major differences in the leadership behavior. (Boundless) A reoccurring theme has been the difference among men and women in leadership is communication and the relationship with followers.