Culture and Women In “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, and “How to date a browngirl, blackgirl, whitegirl or halfie” by Junot Diaz, both authors elaborate on culture, and how it shapes the outlook on women. In Jamaica Kincaid's “Girl” a mother enforces her cultures strong beliefs on appropriate female behavior onto her daughter. To do so, she displays her parental authority with a series of short commands influenced by her culture. A sense of naivety can be seen in the young girl after questioning her mother's request. The culture associated with “Girl” has a definite attitude towards women, believing they should live a modest, conservative lifestyle.
Nature intended women to be the nurturers. That means women have it built into us to be good listeners, mommies, nurses, doctors, etc. 3. Women want you to know that you can talk to them and most of the time they understand. 4.
For example, women now go out to work, just as men now help with housework and childcare. However Feminists reject the ‘March of Progress’ theory, and argue that women remain unequal within the family. Anne Oakley argues that we still live in a patriarchal (male dominated) society, and therefore women occupy a subordinate and dependant role within the family and wider society. In addition in Mary Boulton’s research backed this, she found that fewer than 20% of husbands had a majority role in childcare. Overall it could therefore be argued that rather than partners becoming more equal, women now have to carry a ‘dual burden’, whereby she is responsible for two jobs of unpaid or paid labour.
A Closer Look Into the Middle Ages During the Middle Ages, in a time where religion dictated society, women were affected greatly. They were restricted in numerous ways having strict policies pertaining to music, ministry, education, and their role in their communities minimizing their opportunities to reach their full potential. Nevertheless, many distinguished women found ways to prosper. One women in particular, Hildegard von Bingen, had a different perspective and attempted to break this gender barrier that women in the middle ages dared to overcome. The Medieval period was a time where men were perceived as superior in comparison to women.
For example, when women disagree during a conversation, they may say “‘You may be right, but could it also be that…?’” or “‘Oh, I’m sure you’re right, but I saw it a bit differently’”6. Thus, the style of women’s communication is more sharing and collaborative in nature. In conversations, women have a selfless attitude in that every person should get time to talk about their ideas and feelings7. Their style can be described as the time-share approach to communication. These communication characteristics of women are encapsulated in Deborah
The author of The Epic of Gilgamesh purposefully emphasizes the extent of Gilgamesh rein. This suggests Mesopotamian cultural emphasis on male dominance. It appears as if the author is trying to make a point as to the polar characters present in Mesopotamian society. Patriarchal figures had the capacity and the capability to exercise there dominance over their subordinates (females included). Through Book I historical assumption of Mesopotamian men, as defined earlier, can be undoubtedly
Feminism deals with the role of women in society whilst women’s rights mainly deal with legal matters such as a women’s right to vote. Feminism was important because it highlighted how a woman should be treated in society. It seems that throughout history, women have always played a submissive role to men. Unto this day, women in many parts of the world are considered less of a human than a man. In more developed countries however, the women have chosen that they need to be something more than just a “doll” in society.
Being a Daoist Priestess shows us that men weren’t the only type of human beings able to hold a place of power. By women obtaining property shows us that women could work for themselves and were independent from men. During this time women were quite happy with their rights, but the smile will soon be wiped off their faces because their rights just keep dwindling down to nothing. During the middle or end of the Tang dynasty and beginning of the Song dynasty women’s rights were at there “peak” and started to decline slowly. The Tang dynasty declined due to loss of communication throughout the empire, generals and officials gaining too much power, and revolts causing the empire to be weak and open for attack.
Many men had an attitude of superiority and most women judged the women working in sciences negatively. However, there was some acceptance from men and women of females working in the scientific community. Women frequently were excluded by men from scientific study in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries because the attitude of the time was that women had only certain traits they could possess skill in, such as housework and beauty, and they lacked the intelligence to learn science. In document 3 Samuel Pepys, an Englishman, wrote in his personal diary that the Duchess of Newcastle, an author who wrote a book entitled "A World Made by Atomes", wished to be invited to the meeting of the Royal Society of Scientists. He ends his entry by saying that “The Duchess hath been a good, comely woman, but…” and proceeds to describe his negative opinion of her appearance.
It was also thought to be important for all women to have a sexual outlet. As simple indigenous societies evolved, so did the concept of polygamy. Through trade, science, industry and military events, the simple indigenous societies evolved into more complex political structures. In most of these societies, rather patriarchal or matriarchal, males held most of the executive positions in the military and political structure. With the introduction of either great power or great wealth, the elite males in a society began a steady but gradual shift in the values of the institiution of polygamy.