The Gender violence is so deep rooted in a woman’s lifetime, that freedom from the threat of harassment, battering, and sexual assault is a concept that most of woman have a hard time imagining because violence is such an extensive part of the culture and their spirits. General economic dependence on their families and fear of social ostracization act as a significant deterrent for a woman. Poverty, inability to express, homelessness, isolation from family and friends and many other things contribute to the victimization of the women in society. Instead of putting the perpetrator to justice, the society’s focus shifts to the woman. The patriarchal social norms inhibit women accessing their most basic rights – to safety, health, schooling and work.
Even though she is seen over doing her role as a mother and as a wife but there have been times when she has revealed her true self as powerful and confident. The author criticizes the fact that it is not always the case that motherhood demands the suppression of feminism and the sexuality of women. This can easily be defined by deriving the examples of everyday life. The women today are scattered in all the professions in spite of the fact that they have a family to look after. Women are pilots and soldiers, and their sexuality does not restrict them to play their responsibilities as mother and wife.
There have been so many debates; “is there a feature held in common among ‘women’ that existed before the suppression or do ‘women’ have a bond as a result of their oppression alone? Is there a particular issue in women´s cultures that is independent of their secondary position by hegemonic, male dominant cultures? Are the specificity and honesty of women´s cultural or linguistic practices always stated against and hence, within the terms of some more dominant cultural formation? ” (see Butler 1999:07).There is an unhealthy assumption that the term “women” denotes a common identity and the word women has become a troublesome term, site of contest and a cause for uneasiness or the fear of the unknown. Language is one of those main practices that
She citer her own experience to expose the patriarchal glorification of motherhood, she does not agree mother the concept that “woman’s highest and holiest mission is motherhood” (Of Woman; 42). Rich refers to motherhood as on the one hand a social institution, where all mothers are under social compulsion to adhere to their social status as ‘mother; which has been set for them in accordance with patriarchal values; and on the other hand, it is a crucial emotional experience as natural and spontaneous instant with which they can topple patriarchal definition of feminity (151). The institution of motherhood, generally in all social setups marginalizes the experience of motherhood it seems ; because most of the times, it is believed that, women are excluded from decision making regarding the various issues of pregnancy like, the sex (as to whether or not to go in for sex-determination), number of children and the time , as to when to plan a
Gender Roles and heterosexuality Gender has played a major role since the beginning of time, dictating how individuals should act within society. Gender is a fabricated concept which is shaped and brought forward by various institutions, such as the media, religion, culture and other systems. These hugely influential gender roles are so deeply rooted in individuals that they are accepted as social norms and standards that are rarely questioned (Johnson and Repta). According to Trier-Bieniek and Leavy (n.d), gender is the certain expectations of how femininity and masculinity should be acted out based on people 's assigned biological gender. When men and women enter into a heterosexual relationship, their gender roles are at play and sexual scripts need to be upheld over time in order to continue following the social expectation.
Womanhood is directly linked to our potential for motherhood. From a cultural standpoint marriage and motherhood are considered the primary gender roles for women across social classes. Motherhood establishes a woman’s credential
First, it is clear that the proximal causes of the suppression of female sexuality are predominantly female. The female control theory is broadly consistent with the bulk of the evidence. This conclusion is consistent with feminist views arguing that women have been active agents in society and history rather than merely passive victims of male influence. In the present analysis, female behavior has been guided by a rational and correct assessment of self-interest and a corresponding adaptation to circumstances. It must be acknowledged, however, that the present review has
Ideals of ‘perfection’ regarding the female body and its representations have been a mainstay of modern western societies as early as the nineteenth century. (Brumberg, 1997) In the past, girls and young women were preoccupied with good looks and the ‘promise’ of their sexuality because it often meant the difference between being married and thus a social success, or a life of spinsterhood. In this historical context, female sexuality was linked to economic survival. Girls and young women are no longer constrained by the ‘marry-or-perish’ imperative of the nineteenth and early twentieth century but how you look and more importantly, how you depict yourself continue to be defining factor of social success. The shifting meanings of girlhood and female sexuality are historically and context specific (Jiwani, Steenbergen, and Mitchell, 2006) although female sexuality has always been constructed as either innocent and pure and in need of protection or something dangerous, unpredictable, and therefore to be feared.
1.2 THE EVOLUTION OF FAMILY AND GENDER ROLES Gender roles are “socially and culturally defined prescriptions and beliefs about the behaviour and emotions of men and women.” (Anselmi and Law 1998, p.195) In traditional families, it has been always the male that exudes power and the female was seen as weak, fragile and to be dependent on her husband. A boy was raised to be the head of the family and to protect the womenfolk in the house, it was seen as important for a boy to attend school, get good qualifications to be able to provide for his family in the future. On
The role of women in the society has been greatly overseen in the past few decades. Even from the time of our birth, we all have been guided by the norms and standards created by the society towards the roles designated for each of our particular sexes; may it be our parents, our peers, teachers, the media and even the law. And these roles are inevitable due to the different ideologies and philosophical views the society has planted to the people’s mind. In early days, housework has been identified as the work of women for many years. Women were seen as just plain housewives performing limited roles that the society had created and was assigned to them.