Abstract This paper discusses patriarchy, the social system still prevalent today, whereby males are still perceived as the "strong" one and that boys naturally will be more active, demanding, noisy, and competitive than girls. The paper concludes that what began in prehistoric times as a cooperative system for survival, has become an albatross and we are stuck with living in a patriarchal society where women are to some extent, still oppressed.
From the Paper "Boys will consistently get more attention and more of the teacher's time. While girls will be expected to raise their hands before speaking (and corrected if they don't), boys will be allowed to blurt out answers in class. Girls will be "less likely to be called on by name ...asked fewer complex and abstract questions, receive less praise or constructive feedback, and ... given less direction on how to do things..." (Sadker, 2002, p. 239). Later on, boys will enroll in advanced computer classes, but girls will be in word processing and other clerical support programs (Sadker, 2002). Eventually, all this will be reflected in the careers they choose. Women will enroll in college programs to be teachers, social workers, nurses, and librarians, but only 7-14% of the men will enroll in these programs. Men will go instead where there is money and power."
Abstract The paper looks at the works of Eavan Boland, Sharon Olds, Stevie Smith and Margaret Atwood. The paper examines the imperatives of Christianity, the notion of women as physical adornments and the concept that women since the time of Eve have been blamed for many things and compelled to accept a man as their lord and master on earth. The paper considers that the social upheavals of the twentieth century had their origins in the rejection of Christian patriarchy and suggests that the writers mentioned above played a key role in that revolution.
From the Paper "Eavan Boland's work seems preoccupied with Christianity, as well as with the burdens women must bear in a society in which they are identified by their bodies. Christianity is still the predominant religion in America, as it was throughout the twentieth century. In "Anorexic," Boland comments about a woman grappling with an eating disorder. Not only does it touch upon the suffering and privation of anorexia, it also uses Christian imagery to convey the sort of self-sacrifice involved. Boland writes "Flesh is Heretic / My Body is a Witch/I am burning it . . . . I will grow / Angular and Holy" (lines 1-3, 34-36)."
Tags: Christianity, patriarchy, women, bodies, burdens, Eve
Abstract An investigation of women's rights in Afghanistan. The author examines the rules and laws that women must abide by concerning work, travel and education, punishment and specific difficulties that they encounter such as health care. The paper provides a look at some personal stories.
OUTLINE
I. Introduction
A. Who are the Taliban?
B. Life Before the Taliban
II. Rules
A. May not work
B. Ban on education
C. Travel
D. Contact with males
E. Hiding in home
F. Dress
G. Bathing
III. Punishment
? Death for traveling with man not her mahram
? Whipping, beating and verbal abuse of women not clothed in accordance with Taliban rules, or of women unaccompanied by a mahram, for having non-covered ankles.
? Women have been shot at for leaving their homes without a male escort to receive medical care.
IV. Specific difficulties
A. Employment
B. Health care
V. Personal stories
A. SUMAYYAH KARIMI
VI. Conclusion
From the Paper ?The plight of women in Afghanistan has received much media attention since the start of the United States war on terrorism. This war has focused on Afghanistan because the Taliban government allowed their country to be used as a safe haven by terrorists. While the women of Afghanistan have lived under restrictions unfamiliar to many women living in Western countries, since the Taliban took control of the majority of Afghanistan in 1996, they have been subjected to a series of rules and punishments unprecedented in any other country of the world.?
Abstract This paper argues that women must hold more political positions in their nations? governments. The paper describes that women are fifty percent of the population and therefore should have their fifty percent of their vote represented by women. It demonstrates that women representatives from industrialized countries demonstrated greater concern over issues, such as birth control and childcare, equal pay for casual work, affirmative action and sexual harassment measures, and those in developing countries, focused more on access to childhood immunization, clean and constant water supply, delivery of primary health care services and affordable food sources. The paper illustrates those ground breaking women who have held high political office.
From the Paper "The Second Global Congress of Women in Politics conducted a study on the presence of women in national parliaments throughout the world and discovered that, in the last 25 years, the participation of women in parliaments from 1975 to 1998 grew only slightly from 11% to 12.7% (Kyodo 1998). Women in Nordic countries have the highest rate of participation at a combined average of 36.7% in the two houses of Congress. Arab women have the lowest level of participation at only 3.3%. Asian figures rose from 3% to over 12% in the last 25 years, but there is nothing exciting about this, since Asia holds more than the total world population, half of which is female. (Kyodo)"
Abstract This paper looks at the restrictions imposed by society that women must live under. Mores specifically, the paper discusses the restrictions placed on women in education, sexuality, the workplace and the home and explains how society imposes these restrictions because of longstanding societal rules about women's roles and their behavior. The paper also looks at how these restrictions have held women back from cultural advancement.
From the Paper "Today in US society, women are pressured to fit a certain ideal. We are expected to conform to a set of rules that have been in place in American society for decades. Even though times are changing and opportunities seem to be easier to come by for women today than in the early part of the century, women are still held down by the restrictions these perfect ideals place on them. Our role in the home and in the workplace is constrained to that which the patriarchy has for so long led us to believe is correct. These restrictions are very evident in our everyday lives, including violence against us, poor healthcare, forced sexuality, and even lower pay and less valued jobs. This evidence is what sustains the patriarchy, and thus what restricts women to remain in the positions that we have for so long fought against."
Abstract The paper discusses Aristotle's view of Spartan women, that they constituted a formidable challenge to the patriarchal ideal. Aristotle expressed two main objections to Sparta: the city's failure to curtail women's freedom and to regulate women's ownership of private property. The paper further discusses how Sparta, in his view, represented a failure because it did not conform to his hierarchy of gender relations. The paper explores other sources that provide an image of Spartan women, which illustrates not just their equality with men in all domains, but their superiority over men as well.
Abstract Using anthropologist Michael Allen's article, 'The Hindu View of Women', this essay examines the way in which Hindu beliefs shape and inform both the treatment and conceptualization of women within its religious culture. A detailed discussion of the specific religious beliefs that have influenced the treatment of women is undertaken, and a thorough case study of the Hindu practice of suttee (sati), or widow burning, is used to illustrate Allen's article.
From the Paper "The custom of widow-burning, since first witnessed and recorded by foreigners in 316 B.C.E., has variously produced reactions of indignation, horror, admiration, disgust and pity. Early eyewitness accounts particularly exemplify these reactions and provide a wealth of information not readily available to today's anthropologist due to the decline of suttee since its illegalisation in 1829. Although such accounts are laden with methodological problems and are invariably accounted solely from the time-specific, culture-specific, white, European ?male gaze,? they provide an informative insight into the physical reality of suttee. One such account by the Dutch traveller Stavorinus recounts the acts of a sati on the shore of the Ganges in 1770 (quoted in Weinberger-Thomas, 1999: 97-100). From this account, several important themes emerge which can be used to expose the ideology that underpins the treatment and conceptualisation of women within Hinduism."
Tags: allen, anthropology, dharma, hinduism, ideology, michael, patriarchy, religious, sati
Abstract Using Achebe's novel "Things Fall Apart," the paper analyzes the role of women in Igbo society. The paper maintains that while the culture is chauvinistic and undermines women's voices, it does afford women specific roles of importance.
From the Paper "In Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" we are treated to the story of the oppression and eventual destruction of the culture and society of the Igbo people from outside forces. However within the Igbo culture and society we also see that an oppressive force exists. This oppressive force is exhibited by Achebe as the patriarchal structure of Igbo society that more often than not undermines the voice of women."
Abstract This paper examines the role of women in Shakespeare's classic play; their reactions and coping abilities within the Elizabethan patriarchal society. Katharina is often looked upon as a threat to the system. She defies the expectations of society upon women and plays with masculine characteristics. In her defiance, she gains power. She discovers a power within her choices. To play along, or not to play along? Her realization of existing oppression is power in itself.
From the Paper "Elizabethans were attentive to the world's digression from the ideal order. Shakespearean comedy is farcical with a comic re evaluation of social norms. The ideal order consists of a hierarchical system in which everything and everyone has a fixed place. The family was to follow a corresponding order within the divine system. Tensions concerning Elizabethan faith in the order were heightened by the Puritan challenge to the established regime. The feisty and independent Katharina reflects the increasing threats to authority in society. Katharina inflates the attempt to re establish order within the familial system in Shakespeare?s, "The Taming of the Shrew". Katharina communicates the notion that freedom is not absolute as she plays with accepted social restraints."
Tags: constraints, elizabethan, oppression, patriarchy, women
Abstract This essay argues that although woman have penetrated into a men's world, there is little doubt that it remains a man's world. The paper shows that health care is imbedded in a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women. The medical profession is based on an ideology of men's superiority over women and enforces an essentialist gender division of work. The paper makes use of opinions from a group discussion.
From the Paper "The authors did an admirable task exploring the exterior and interior barriers women faced in medicine. Division of labor within the home (childrearing), essentialist notions of women's roles, sexism, informal networks, prejustice, lack of role models, support, "glass ceilings", kept women from reaching positions of power, privilege and status. The writers emphasized women's influence on professional work. Attitudes have changed and women's issues are acknowledged and dealt with. Although medicine still has traces of misogyny, especially in surgery, Health Care is beginning to recognize women as a legitimate norm."
Abstract This paper discusses the formation and development of the Korean women's trade union. It examines the social and economic impact of the union. The author also mentions the reasons for the formation of the union.
From the Paper "The Korean Women's Trade Union KWTU was created to protect the rights of women workers to work and their entitlements to non discriminatory working conditions and benefits due to the widely ..."
Abstract This paper examines the role of women in Restoration comedy and what it expresses about the relations between men and women of the era and in modern society.
Abstract This paper assesses the women's suffrage movement in the U.S. from 1880-1920, one that resulted in women winning suffrage in 1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment. It details the ideas, tactics and methods of the suffrage movement.
From the Paper "The culture of the United States during the women's suffrage movement from was still one dominated by Victorian values. Biologically socially and economically women were relegated to the status of second-class citizens in comparison to men. In the ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, Aileen Kraditor tells that one anti-suffragist Florida Congressman openly stated that woman was made man's helper was given a servient place and man the dominant in the vision of labor. Among middle-class women the full-time roles of housewife and mother were the ..."
Tags: Susan B. Anthony, gender, bias, sexism, patriarchy, rights, equality, religion, Victorian values, institutions
Abstract The paper explains how women's roles and self-expression have significantly broadened over the past 100 years but are still subjected to negative stereotypes from the time when the three short stories under discussion were written: "The Story of an Hour," "The Necklace" and "The Lady with the Pet Dog."
From the Paper "Women and Social Change. There is little argument that roles for women have changed over the past years. From being granted the right to vote, the Women's Movement equal pay for equal work legislation and the slow but sure dismantling of the glass ceiling in organizations and corporations, women's roles are much expanded and more diverse than they were years ago."
Tags: short stories, women, marriage, ostracism, oppression, patriarchy, values, roles, norms, Chopin, Chekov, de Maupassant
Abstract The paper begins by comparing the general presentation of the female role in "Oedipus the King" to that of "Beowulf". The paper then highlights how women have very particular boundaries in both "Beowulf" and "Oedipus the King". The paper shows how, whenever they step beyond these boundaries, disaster and often death result, while those remaining within the boundaries, either by fate or will, are seen as personifying "good".
From the Paper "Ancient literature is always interesting in terms not only of what it can still teach the audience even today, but also in terms of what it reveals regarding the society of the time. Plays such as Oedipus the King, for example, provide the reader with particular insight regarding the view of fate and its role in human life. Others, such as the epic poem Beowulf, provides insight into the juxtaposition of good and evil in the ancient mind. In addition, these works also provide insight into the societies of the time, and in particular into the subtleties in class and gender relationships. In both works, for example, the roles of the various women serve, to a greater or lesser extent, to either compliment or challenge the positions and roles of the men in the respective worlds represented."
