Gender Roles In Evava Jakobsdottir's A Story For Children

Through the eyes of society, to be a mother is to be perfection. Perfection in your children’s eyes, your husband’s eyes, your family, friends. To be seen as the perfect mother is the envy of mothers in today’s age. Women have certain expectations in Society. They are to be the mother, the caregiver, the maid. They are expected to be demure and polite, a robot to their families and home. In the reverse, Men also have certain roles that they are expected to fill in culture. Men are expected to be strong and the leader for women. These expectations, so commonplace, mostly go unnoticed by not just the women they are placed upon, but also the society that places them upon their shoulders. Svava Jakobsdottir’s “A Story for Children” tells the story of a woman as she raises her children and takes care of her household. The mother is completely devoted to her children and seeks to fulfill her role in the home to the fullest extent. As the story moves along, the main character slowly loses pieces of herself: her toe, her …show more content…
The discourse for most cultures seem to emphasize a women’s nature, and therefore her role, is to be a mother. Commonly women are expected to be the caregiver and housekeeper for the family. They should keep the home clean, have dinner cooked perfectly, and satisfy every whim of the children as well as her husband; this is the norm for most cultures. In her story, Jakobsdottir portrays the main character as being true to her nature” because she is able to “devote all her energies to her home and her children.” The main character, truly does nothing else besides cooking and cleaning the home. While at the same time, her husband exudes the male stereotype in the household. His one duty is to go to work and that is it. He expects for his wife to have all the chores done and dinner on the table when he arrives home from