Argumentative Essay: The Status Of Women

However, consistent with some degree with the above statements, some female informants defined power in terms of sex (biologically determined identity) and gender (culturally prescribed and assumed social roles of women and men). Some women believe that land or wealth is not the only factor that makes a man powerful; rather, they believe that men are powerful by dint of their sex. A husband may be poor, but still he is the husband, and so he deserves respect (samman) and obedience from his wife and children. The wife needs to earn his respect by demonstrating her abilities to accomplish the goals she is supposed to accomplish as a woman. It is observed that a wife of a landless person obeys her husband the same way a wife of a wealthy person obeys her husband. “He has the power, …show more content…
Because he is a man. A man can do anything, can say anything. Being women, we are not allowed to do everything, we do not sometimes understand everything, that is why men deserve a higher status.” Another 29-year old non-literate poor female respondent pointed at me and stated that, “You obviously have more power, because you are a man.” “It is quite obvious that men have a higher status. Your brother died leaving me behind; does it mean that I am now achieve a higher status? No I am not. He is my husband, am I not his wife? How do I become superior to him? I did not bring him here; rather, he brought me here, did he not? During the wedding both of us said ‘I do,’ yet he is superior,” stated another 37-year old middleclass female respondent who attended high school in her young age. In this context, a male respondent stated, “We can say that a man’s status is higher than a woman’s. The child belongs to both of us, to me and to my wife; but people identify a child as the son or daughter of the father, not the mother.” Another male informant held, “When somebody asks whose house this is, people will answer this is Mr. such and such person’s house, not Mrs. such and