Question 3. Why is the concept of “work” necessary for us to understand gender relations in cultural context? How does work relate to gender roles and attitudes?
Understanding the concept of “work”, gives an idea about how the responsibilities, the control over the sources and the power are distributed between the genders, and how the arrangements such as who works for the survival of the families, who cares for the children, are made. The work is related to and may determine the family system, such as matrilineal or patrilineal. For example, in the matrilineal society of Asande , the women are those who work for the survival and prosperity of their children while the men do not contribute at all. Examining the work in a culture, …show more content…
But, I think that there are challenging sides or practices that cannot be accepted, and it is not only because they make us feel uncomfortable, but because they violate the human rights. We cannot make the other cultures to adopt principles and values such as our own, but we can contribute to a change for good through convincing the people to obey human rights, and in my opinion, this is not a kind of imperialism or colonialism as how it is questioned by M. Ward and M. Edelstein. Mostly the challenges occur when the subject are women or their rights, and I think that it is not possible to be pro-women and culturally relative at the same time. For example, a practice that lead to increase in number of boys in some Asian countries such as China and India at the expense of “disappearing daughters” in China, or the “dowry deaths” in India cannot be justified. Being culturally relative in this situation, will result in an increase of the number of the disappearing girls, it will enhance the female disadvantage and the deliberate discrimination of the parents or it will lead to abandonment of the girls in these countries. Another example, is the custom of circumcision of the women in various countries, which doesn’t have a clear explanation about it purpose, but it carries …show more content…
Because there is no increase in the wage employment, the women from those counties work in the informal sector, which is extremely difficult to measure and makes them invisible. One of the reasons that makes women in those countries invisible is that they are paid less than men and their work is seen as an extension of the domestic work. Another reason for being invisible, is that the women who work in agriculture and cultivate crops and produce the big percentage of it do not own the land, so they cannot be qualified for credits or cash and they depend on the will of their relatives to be paid. Throughout the history the woman’s role, was to be a homemaker and she was defined by the housework, but when they are outside of their houses they are invisible. The care for children and the domestic works are female duties that are not shared by the males, and they are invisible. For example, in many developing countries the fetching water and gathering wood are responsibilities of the women and they are provided by the them. Among the example of invisible labor in the United States are the care for children and the domestic
Understanding the concept of “work”, gives an idea about how the responsibilities, the control over the sources and the power are distributed between the genders, and how the arrangements such as who works for the survival of the families, who cares for the children, are made. The work is related to and may determine the family system, such as matrilineal or patrilineal. For example, in the matrilineal society of Asande , the women are those who work for the survival and prosperity of their children while the men do not contribute at all. Examining the work in a culture, …show more content…
But, I think that there are challenging sides or practices that cannot be accepted, and it is not only because they make us feel uncomfortable, but because they violate the human rights. We cannot make the other cultures to adopt principles and values such as our own, but we can contribute to a change for good through convincing the people to obey human rights, and in my opinion, this is not a kind of imperialism or colonialism as how it is questioned by M. Ward and M. Edelstein. Mostly the challenges occur when the subject are women or their rights, and I think that it is not possible to be pro-women and culturally relative at the same time. For example, a practice that lead to increase in number of boys in some Asian countries such as China and India at the expense of “disappearing daughters” in China, or the “dowry deaths” in India cannot be justified. Being culturally relative in this situation, will result in an increase of the number of the disappearing girls, it will enhance the female disadvantage and the deliberate discrimination of the parents or it will lead to abandonment of the girls in these countries. Another example, is the custom of circumcision of the women in various countries, which doesn’t have a clear explanation about it purpose, but it carries …show more content…
Because there is no increase in the wage employment, the women from those counties work in the informal sector, which is extremely difficult to measure and makes them invisible. One of the reasons that makes women in those countries invisible is that they are paid less than men and their work is seen as an extension of the domestic work. Another reason for being invisible, is that the women who work in agriculture and cultivate crops and produce the big percentage of it do not own the land, so they cannot be qualified for credits or cash and they depend on the will of their relatives to be paid. Throughout the history the woman’s role, was to be a homemaker and she was defined by the housework, but when they are outside of their houses they are invisible. The care for children and the domestic works are female duties that are not shared by the males, and they are invisible. For example, in many developing countries the fetching water and gathering wood are responsibilities of the women and they are provided by the them. Among the example of invisible labor in the United States are the care for children and the domestic