Good A Society Where Gender Thrives Essay Example

As we end our course on Women and Gender studies, we tried to refresh our minds with the various lessons that we conducted in the past few weeks. We went back to the results of the group works that challenged our mindset regarding our own gender prejudices. From there, we assessed the developments in terms of knowledge and acceptance regarding gender equality. It cannot be discounted that we have gone far from our first meeting.
We, male students understood that women indeed hold half the sky and that they should be valued the way men are valued in the society. Both men and women in the class realized that beyond domestic roles of women, they also deserve to thrive in various disciplines like men do. I also realized that women are also thinking in a disempowered point of view because of what the patriarchal society engenders into them since childhood. Without knowing, women’s choices have been based on the gender roles that have been set by the society.
It is important to point out what Heather Hackman mentioned in the introduction of “Sexism” that said, society has constructed the very rigid gender roles namely the feminine and the masculine. Throughout the course, this knowledge imparted to us has been boggling my mind as it is the one that engineers how women and men think, and make choices and decisions. As explained by Hackman, feminine is the character that society structured for women and masculine are for men. Anything that goes in contrast with the roles is abnormal in the eyes of the society. These rigid gender roles have melded women to be emotional, weak, and subordinates of men. While we (men) are engineered not to cry as crying is only for women. Crying for men signifies weakness. Men who display this “weakness” are judged as gays.
Moreover, what strikes me most is the fact that femininity and masculinity are not qualities that we as human beings are born with. They are just social constructs that society engenders on us. This is I think the most compelling because most people if not all are taught since childhood that women should act feminine and men, masculine because it is the way it should be, and that we are born to be that way. It is important to iterate this to everybody not only during class but to our social circles including our families. I think that this social construct is causing hate crimes against homosexuals.
In engendering a society where gender thrives, it should start at the personal level in order to influence the social circles where we belong. I remember the meeting where we discussed about women working for a television series who keep their mouth shut during story board discussions because they do not want to be disliked by their co-workers. This is from the thinking that women who talk more are most likely to be disliked at work than men who are talkative. It is important then for us men and women who have been enlightened on gender issues to reflect it at home, at work, and in-front of our social circles.
Engendering a society where there is no gender discrimination is not a walk in the park. It needs systematic actions from all sectors in all the facets of the society. Trying to change the patriarchal system of our society is like breaking a huge institution that shaped the human societies since time immemorial. However, it needs to be started now.