Essay On Marriage In American Culture

Marriage plays a large part in many cultures and helps to define the different gender roles that exist within a society. In Egyptian culture, they believe that a person’s life is not complete until they marry and have children. When we compare marriage within Egyptian and American cultures, we can observe many differences and similarities between the two. In Egypt, when a man is searching for a wife, he looks for a woman with qualities such as money, beauty, status, and piety. If a woman possesses such attributions, she then qualifies as marriageable. Once the groom has chosen a woman to marry, he will take her to his home to meet his family where they will evaluate whether they think she would be a suitable wife for him. In America, we see many people go through a similar process: a man will choose the girl he wants to marry based on the different qualities that she has in relation to the attributes he desires in a wife. Traditionally in American culture, there comes a time in a relationship where you meet one another’s parents, this can be a major step for many couples considering that whatever the person’s family think of …show more content…
The husband’s role is to support his wife and family; a man can have up to four wives if he treats them all equally. Women aren’t permitted to leave without their husband’s permission, and they should not quarrel, disobey, or cheat. Feminism has become a wide held worldview amongst many Americans, and has led to many women taking precedence in the workplace. American culture believes that people aren’t justified in saying that one gender is superior to another, and in Egyptian culture it seems that they view men as superior to women. The gender roles created within each society play a crucial role in creating their own cultures and influence their perception of the world as well as the people within