Gender's Role In Achieving The American Dream

Many people migrate to the United States every year to achieve the famous American Dream. The dream being that, “if you work hard and play by the rules, you should be given a chance to go as far as your God-given ability will take you”(Lareau, Annette). Nonetheless society does not take into account many circumstances that could alter or influence the chances of a individual in the pursuit of the American Dream. Some of these circumstances being gender, class and the particular traditional culture of a person. Gender is a misconceived word in todays society. As the word gender is typically thought to only be constricted into two words; female or male. However gender is used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. A individual can be born into a male sex but consider himself a female gender. In America we hold a certain feminine image for the female gender when it comes to working. “This definition of feminine derives from an upperclass reality in which Women traditionally did not need (and men often didn’t allow …show more content…
As seen in the movie Real Women Have Curves, Ana is scolded for wanting to go to college. She is born into a traditional latino family. Where her family believes that she should work to help the family instead of going to school. As Ana’s mom says, “It 's a matter of principle. It 's not fair. I worked since I was 13 years old and Ana is 18 years old. Now it 's her turn”(Real Women Have Curves). Ana even achieves a full scholarship to Columbia University, but her parents feel if she goes she will break up the family and her sisters dress shop will not be able to stay open. “One of the best predictors of whether a child will one day graduate from college is whether his or her parents are college graduates”(Lareau, Annette). The family believes Ana’s main goal is to attract a guy and start a family. This is true in many traditional culture families in