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Gender differences in Mexican culture
Mexican American family structure
Gender and cultural stereotypes
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I grew up in Oaxaca, Mexico. Oaxaca is a very active city both during the day and during the night. Although the community is large with many streets, and great groups of diverse people, everybody seems to know each other.
My family consisted of my parents, seven brothers, one sister, and myself. We were all very different despite being so closely related in age – each sibling being apart in age by only two years or less. Due to our proximity in age, each of us was closest to the sibling that was immediately older and/or younger in age. This way, the sibling who was immediately older in age would have to take care of the younger one, and so on.
We had this system worked out, and it worked. It was like a chain of dependency. Despite being around each other often, we were definitely not the “typical” Mexican family that sat around the table for supper and exchanged stories and laughter. Instead, my mother would make food and store it; we were all expected to serve ourselves whenever we grew hungry. This created a very distant relationship between our parents and their children. But it also made us very independent at an early age. My parents did their best to educate us and teach us manners, but their very long work schedules, at times, made it very difficult for them to give us all the support we needed. I cannot complain, though. We never lacked food, clothing, or a shelter.
Our home was dominated by a strong male presence. I recall being aware of the gendered differences between the way that my brothers and I were treated as opposed to my sister and my mother. I accepted this difference without giving it much thought, because I assumed that Mexican households were run. We, as men, were taught to be auto-sufficient ...
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...e that my mother had suddenly gotten up and had grabbed a pan from the kitchen to protect herself. I do not really remember what happened after that, I just remember that this affected our family’s dynamics. Nothing was the same after that evening.
I think that my mother felt the support that we had for her after we protected her during that violent moment, because she never allowed my father to hit her again. To be honest, I am not sure if he ever even tried. I like to believe that my mother never experienced my father’s violence ever again. I was very close to my mother and after that moment, I felt that she also felt closer to me. I feel like she appreciated my reaction to this violent situation. Regardless, I definitely felt a stronger mutual connection. This was a moment that really marked me as a person and represented my childhood. It was all very complex.
One of the most fundamental institution of colonial Mexico was the family. According to Mark A. Burkholder and Lyman L. Johnson, “‘family’ in this context meant not only the biological family, but also the larger set of family relations created by marriages and by forging alliances through the selection of godparents…”. The nucleus of the family was the father who exerted a great deal of power over other members of the family. Both, men and women were control by their fathers but, man were given certain liberties that were not presented to women. For instance, Susan Socolow mention that “daughters had to be controlled, and the...
There are seven billion humans living on planet earth, with hundreds of different cultures and ethnicities. As the leading species on earth, humans have further felt the need to also have a dominant gender. This title is given to the males of society. In the novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, the main characters experience a firsthand look to how male dominance prevails in not only the Dominican Republic but also in America. The Garcia family is a prestigious family line in the Dominican Republic, as a result the children of the family have a traditional and very controlled upbringing. The Garcia family moves from the Dominican Republic to the United States which causes the children of the family: Sofia, Yolanda,
A typical afternoon consists of my dad laying on the couch from a long day at work, and my mom in the kitchen, preparing dinner. Although we live in an era that has predominantly nullified sex-specific social norms, a difference in gender roles still exists within households. What exactly are gender roles? They are fixed, gender specific expectations, established, in this case, among families. These roles of what should socially be considered masculine and feminine have existed throughout many centuries. A particular issue regarding gender roles is, do gender roles in households ultimately affect both the physical and mental development of a child? With thorough research and observations conducted by, Jacquelynne S. Eccles, Janis E. Jacobs,
My family consists of a short generation. My parents, Gina and Darrell, are divorced. I am the oldest and I have a younger brother, Kyle. My mom’s side of the family is the Cox family. My mom is the oldest of five.
In Mexican families, men are generally “in charge”. In a traditional Mexican family, women take care of the children and maintain the household while the men go to work and put food on the table. This is similar to American culture because in an American family, if a parent stays home, it is usually the woman. In both Mexican and American families, women generally have the nurturing and caring job while men do work outside the house. Men usually get the jobs that take more body power. There are also many differences in gender role between these countries.
My readings suggest the Hispanic culture gender roles are very common and strict. Starting early in life children are taught to follow the strict guidelines of their gender (American Home Resources, 2010). There exists three common gender specific scripts in Hispanic culture; females can either be “Marianismo” or “Hembrismo”, and, males are classified as “Machismo”. The two female roles differ greatly; “Marianismo” defines behaviors of women as being obedient, dependent and caring for their children. The “Hembrismo” role stresses a female’s strength to persist through life’s difficulties; however, this role is not accepted widely in their culture. The “Machismo” role describes behaviors of men as being dominant and independent. This role views the man as being in charge of the family. (Peñalosa,
We tend to be like those around us that have the same values and beliefs. So we also tend to do the same things and are raised the same way. Marrying into an Anglo family, this family does not have the close family relations that my Mexican family has. Some Anglo families may, although not to the extent of Mexican households. If you have ever seen My Big Greek Fat Wedding, well this is how Mexican families tend to live their lives, always in each other’s business. I don’t see much of this in my husband’s family and for me, it was a huge adjustment. There almost seems to be a distance and lives are not shared. Where Mexican women think family is most important, Anglo women think family is important, but so is the status. Anglo women seek it all; they want family and career; although not an impossible task, it can take away from family time. “Since prestige, power, and self-esteem are not derived from achieved status to as great an extent among Mexicans, employment is more crucial to psychological well-being for Anglo women than form Mexican” (Ross et al. 1983). Inequality among races shows that Mexicans take immense pride in the household chores while Anglos take great pride in status. By tradition, Mexican women are praised and revered for their roles as homemakers. This view is a status of prestige that is very respected in the Hispanic community. “Ministering mothers are respected revered and recognized important figures despite their alleged low status in the family” (Mirande, 1977:752). On the other hand, “Anglo women are not in traditional homes where the wife receives prestige for her role in family, yet they are not in nontraditional homes where the husband and wife share the work (both outside and inside the home) equally” (Ross et al. 1983). As stated earlier Mexican women in the roles of homemakers in their home are viewed as pillars of strength and respect in their homes and
Gender roles and stereotypes can many times intertwine because of our western culture has taught us since the first radio broadcast show, “Father Knows Best” which was based on the father, Jim who was the ruler of the household and the wife would do whatever he said. Gender roles in the 1950’s were that the men worked hard, brought home the money, and had all the power in the home. Women were seen as the homemakers who can’t make their own decisions and are portrayed as a week. According to an article called Gender Roles in 1950’s America, “men were expected to be strong, masculine, and good decision makers, which served as a natural counter-balance for the feminine and maternal role of women” (White, Retrieved
Growing up everyone has certain roles to perform; gradually your roles can change once you are freely able to express yourself without any restrictions. Unfortunately just like thousands of other women in the world at the time, the women of Mexico were limited and had role in which they followed. A challenge Mexican women had during their early times was that, “no unmarried women under thirty could legally leave her parental home” (Soto, 10). This limited women to their own individuality as they were force to stay home and take care of their parents since there was no husband to tender for. Every women wanted to get married so that they can grow older a...
White men controlled the government and created how America is today. White women were also seen as superior to other races, but not superior to White men. Women were seen as only being capable of taking care of children and doing housework. Unfortunately, this is still represented in my family today. A main event that sticks out to me that represents gender stereotypes and roles is holiday gatherings. At holiday events the women are in the kitchen preparing the food while the men are in the living room talking and/or watching a sporting event. After dinner, the men go back to the living room, while the women are expected to put away leftovers, clean the dishes, and so
Most Mexican families are extremely traditional, with the man as the head of the house hold, and the authority figure. Machismo (masculinity) in all latino countries is a huge problem, not only because women are being deprived of their freedom, but because men abuse their power. I asked five Mexican women how they felt about Machismo in Mexico. Two of the five women told me kind of the same thing; They believe that it is not a bad thing, but it depends on the man. The other three were very against it, and they ...
The workplace became masculinized, and the home feminized. By the separation of the masculine and feminine spheres that had been promoted, men and women now lived in separate worlds. By the turn of the twentieth century, men realized that their exclusion from the domestic sphere was, in fact, harmful to them: It left men “unable to experience the love, nurture and repose that the home supposedly represented” (Kimmel 158). Men were also worried at the “feminization” that potentially threatened their sons: men feared that women, who had the main responsibility for the upbringing of the children, would make the sons into
Mexican men are independent because they are the main bread winner. They are powerful or maybe influential because they are expected to find work and be the main source of the household. For example, they are responsible for bringing food to the table, taking care of the family and making sure everything is fine. American men are very similar to Mexican men but they tend to be more dominant. Women in the other hand are dependent because they depend on their husband to do all the masculine work. Mexican women are submissive as well because they are the ones to be obedient and do what their husbands expects them to do. For instances, they are expected to have the house cleaned and food ready by the time their husband gets home from work. Now in the United States, women are used to working. They are. It expected to have the house clean nor food ready at a certain time because they are out of the house working. They pay their own bills, pay for the household food and do what some Mexican men are expected to do in
Women and men are nestled into predetermined cultural molds when it comes to gender in American society. Women play the roles of mothers, housekeepers, and servants to their husbands and children, and men act as providers, protectors, and heads of the household. These gender roles stem from the many culture myths that exist pertaining to America, including those of the model family, education, liberty, and of gender. The majority of these myths are misconceptions, but linger because we, as Americans, do not analyze or question them. The misconception of gender suggests that biological truths no longer dictate our gender roles as men and women; they derive from cultural myths. We, as a nation, need to do severe critical thinking about this delusion of gender, how has limited us in the home, media, and education, how it currently limits us, and what the results of the current and future changes in gender roles will be.
I have three siblings along with three nephews. I have a younger sister, older sister, and one older brother. My older sister is the one that had my nephews. We all lived under the same roof until I moved out for college. My mother was more like my father in the house because my father was away working for us, and even though my siblings are her children, it seems that they 're her siblings too. It felt that I was the parent of my nephews and little sister because of the way I had to care for them because everyone else was working. I connect with my immediate family firmly. We always look out for each other because we mean so much to one another. I