1) The well-known phrase, ‘a woman’s place is in the home’, quite clearly sums up the way women have been viewed by society. In both the east and the west, a woman’s primary duty was to nurture her family and take care of the home and defer to the decisions and opinions of the men of the family. These ideals were ingrained in them from a very early age. Hence most women confined their world view to acquiring domestic skills and maintaining an attractive physical appearance; both these factors were considered vital in finding a good husband, a pursuit that defined a woman’s existence in historical times, and in some countries even today.
Yet another long-held view was that ‘women are the weaker sex’. The rationale offered for this was that since women are physically weaker than men, therefore they needed to be protected from danger. An offshoot of this highly ill-formed bias was the popular notion that females have a delicate constitution, are squeamish and lack the tolerance and forbearance of hearing or witnessing unpleasant, shocking and violent actions.
The irony that has always struck me in this concept of treating women as delicate entities who will apart at the slightest hint of anxiety or stress is that, it is the woman who goes through the excruciatingly painful process of childbirth. In my opinion, any living entity, capable of tolerating such pain for extended durations has the strength and courage to achieve any feat in the world.
2) The presentation discusses the concept of gender socialization; this is an ongoing process throughout a person’s life in which the people around us, such as friends and family, as well as the media, create certain images of what activities are desirable for each gender. For instance, generally it is considered a woman’s responsibility to cook, even if she has a full-time job; an expectation that is created in their minds from a very young age.
In Parenti’s lecture, he talks about the oppression of women across the world and attempts to answer the question of what exactly is it that women want from life and from their partners. Being a feminist does not at all mean that a woman cannot be happily married; it means having the support of her family in making decisions that help her evolve and groom her other talents and skills beyond cooking .
This is why Florence Nightingale is the most heroic female figure in history. She, single-handedly, transformed the way women were viewed in a matter of a few weeks. During the Crimean War of 1853, she not only volunteered as a nurse and saved countless lives, but thanks to her education, she was able to introduce new medical practices that significantly improved patient care. A battlefield is considered a man’s domain even today, yet Nightingale, with her knowledge and foresight, proved that women, if given the opportunity, had more intelligence, patience and strength of character than they were given credit for.
The second is Marie Curie, who was the first woman to win the Noble Prize in both Physics and Chemistry. She studied and excelled in a profession that requires extensive research, intelligence, and dedicated commitment, and which, even today is dominated by men.
The third is Jane Austen, the author of several novels that have gone down in history as English Literature classics. Austen penned these novels at a time when female novelists were unheard of; what is even more impressive is that her stories, be it Jo’s Boys or Little Women were based on strong, independent female characters, who despite their ambition are very close to their families and have happy marriages with their husbands.
I have long been an admirer of Hillary Clinton, right from the time she became First Lady, through to the elegant and mature way in which she held her marriage and family together during the Monica Lewinsky controversy, up to her appointment as Secretary of State. I believe she will make a good president, not because she is a woman, but because she has proved her integrity, her political awareness and her compassion for people through her proposed health reforms. All qualities that I believe are integral for an effective presidency .
3) Through this course I believe I will be able to gain an understanding of how individual behaviours relate to societal or group behaviours. Also, the course should also enable me to understand that the influence of family, friends and the media shape our viewpoints and our ideas of what qualifies as appropriate or inappropriate behaviours with respect to gender.
Works Cited
Parenti, Michael. "What do women want?" 4 March 2008. Youtube. Internet. 25 March 2016.
Zeisler, Andi. "Hillary, Gloria and One-Size-Fits-All Feminism." 12 February 2016. U.S. News & World Report. Blog. 31 March 2016.
