Gender Differences In American Culture

500 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Growing up in a mexican culture

I have the great fortune of having my maternal eighty-eight-year-old grandfather alive, as up today. Speaking to him, he told me that growing up in his childhood has been one the best memories he has in his life. He had a total of eight siblings, four women, and three men. All his siblings are just a year apart from each other. He has had a strong bonding relationship with all of them, especially with his brothers. He is the second to the youngest boy in his nuclear family. He remembers when his second to the oldest brother would mess around with him, he would always run up to his oldest brother to defend him. He also had a strong bonding relationship with his parents as well, especially when he began his adolescence and adulthood years. Him …show more content…

My grandfather was born and raised in Mexico, but he used to be contracted by companies here in the United States to work in the camp. “If it wasn’t for women’s right movement from 1848-1920, women weren’t allowed to do most of anything that they can do now.” “There was no business woman, in the business industry, and if there was; they would get paid unfairly based on her gender role.” “Women however, could work in helping other women in house chores, for instance.” In other words, gender roles were also very difficult. Men were told to work in the camp and bring the money in to the home. While women stayed at home doing house chores and taking care of children. Women couldn’t be privileged to be issued a credit card if it wasn’t under her husband’s signature that would allow her to have one. Speaking about World War II, he says that he used to hear how life was cruel during that time. Many children and other people getting killed by the Nazis. “Good thing was that I was married and in Mexico through those rough years.” The only major family crises that he has had through his entire life from when he was a child- up to being a grown and married man, was that there was a lot of poverty going on in his life back

Show More
Related

  • Gender Roles In Contemporary American Culture

    2622 Words  | 6 Pages

    In today’s contemporary American culture, gender roles are despised by the younger generation because of the distinctions placed on them. This is the era of open-mindedness and self-expression and because of this individuals feel they should not be told what they can and cannot do based on their sex. There are now material things such as, clothes, shoes and perfumes that are considered unisex, males and females can now fight in wars and men are no longer fully needed to be the providers of their families. Though the American culture has attempted to make a leap forward when it comes to breaking down the barriers of gender roles, it is still being held back. Being a culture that was first influenced by the Christian religion, there are still traces of these gender roles present. From areas of

    Read More

  • Women in World War Two

    1430 Words  | 3 Pages

    “There was much more to women’s work during World War Two than make, do, and mend. Women built tanks, worked with rescue teams, and operated behind enemy lines” (Carol Harris). Have you ever thought that women could have such an important role during a war? In 1939 to 1945 for many women, World War II brought not only sacrifices, but also a new style of life including more jobs, opportunities and the development of new skills. They were considered as America’s “secret weapon” by the government. Women allowed getting over every challenge that was imposed by a devastating war. It is necessary to recognize that women during this period brought a legacy that produced major changes in social norms and work in America.

    Read More

  • World War Two and Its Impact on the Role of American Women in Society

    1950 Words  | 4 Pages

    For the first time women were working in the industries of America. As husbands and fathers, sons and brothers shipped out to fight in Europe and the Pacific, millions of women marched into factories, offices, and military bases to work in paying jobs and in roles reserved for men in peacetime. Women were making a living that was not comparable to anything they had seen before. They were dependent on themselves; for once they could support the household. Most of the work in industry was related to the war, such as radios for airplanes and shells for guns. Peggy Terry, a young woman who worked at a shell-loading plant in Kentucky, tells of the money that was to be made from industrial work (108). “We made a fabulous sum of thirty-two dollars a week. To us that was an absolute miracle. Before that, we made nothing (108)." Sarah Killingsworth worked in a defense plant. " All I wanted to do was get in the factory, because they were payin more than what I'd been makin. Which was forty dollars a week, which was pretty good considering I'd been makin about twenty dollars a week. When I left Tennessee I was only makin two-fifty a week, so that was quite a jump (114)." Terry had never been able to provide for herself as she was able to during the war. " Now we'd have money to buy shoes and a dress and pay rent and get some food on the table. We were just happy to have work (108).” These women exemplify the turn around from the peacetime to wartime atmosphere on the home front. The depression had repressed them to poverty like living conditions. The war had enabled them to have what would be luxury as compared to life before.

    Read More

  • Mexican Americans During World War II

    1136 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ght them that they were given the same opportunities as whites in the military. The women wanted to also be recognized for their hard work in the military and for traditional male labor jobs. If it weren’t for the women, many bombs, ammunition even tanks wouldn’t have been made or even ran out. Thus the bracero program brought many Mexicans to the United States for work and was paid a low wage. Many struggled with the low wage and horrible living conditions; when their contract was up, many were forced to go back to Mexico. After the war, Many Mexican Americans were discriminated and weren’t respected for the service they put themselves through in order to protect our freedom. Many people have forgotten what the men, women, and programs within WWII did for the United States, and now they are fully remembered on how many of them fought for the future we live in today.

    Read More

  • Women In World War I

    1370 Words  | 3 Pages

    When all the men were across the ocean fighting a war for world peace, the home front soon found itself in a shortage for workers. Before the war, women mostly depended on men for financial support. But with so many gone to battle, women had to go to work to support themselves. With patriotic spirit, women one by one stepped up to do a man's work with little pay, respect or recognition. Labor shortages provided a variety of jobs for women, who became street car conductors, railroad workers, and shipbuilders. Some women took over the farms, monitoring the crops and harvesting and taking care of livestock. Women, who had young children with nobody to help them, did what they could do to help too. They made such things for the soldiers overseas, such as flannel shirts, socks and scarves.

    Read More

  • Cultural Expectations for Women within America

    834 Words  | 2 Pages

    Every year about a million immigrants come to America in hope to start a better life for their family. They leave with virtually nothing, just the clothes on their backs and a few, hard earned coins. As they start a new life here in the United States, most immigrants tend to notice the drastic differences that are present between their culture and Western society, particularly in the way women are supposed to talk and behave. In the excerpt from “Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts,” Maxine Hong Kingston addresses these hardships as a Chinese girl who is searching for her voice in America. During the excerpt, Kingston portrays fitting into these “cultural expectations” as absolutely necessary, as shown in the last paragraph in Page 10. She says things like “If you don’t talk… then you can’t be a house wife.” Or “Don’t you ever want to be a cheerleader?” (Kingston 10) At the time of this scene, the narrator was so sure that the American way was the right way, that she bullies a younger student into changing. Alas the student never changes and the narrator falls sick for a year and a half because of her ill actions. However, plenty has changed since that time of the Korean War (1950’s.) Nowadays, these expectations of what is an American woman are changing. Compared to the 1950’s, women currently are holding much more power, and are viewed as a superior sex symbol.

    Read More

  • Women During Ww2 Dbq Essay

    904 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although women had the opportunity to work, many of them had children that needed to be taken care of while they worked. Some mothers relied on family members and friends to take care of their children, while others had to place their children in childcare centers. While young children were being taken care of, children who were old enough went to school. “Bay Area schoolchildren were enthusiastically enlisted into wartime activities, such as collecting scrap and buying Victory Stamps, but they were also identified as particularly vulnerable victims of wartime social changes” (Doc. B). Children could help out with the war effort whether they were at home or at

    Read More

  • Mexican Women And Mexican American Women

    1873 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mexican Women began to work the jobs men did, such as jobs that required maintenance, miners, and defense plants. This era proved to be especially significant for Mexican American women, whose new wage-earning status created a sense of self-sufficiency and intensified issues of self-identity” (Quinones 245) These Mexican women were the “Susanas del SP” which was the Mexican version of “Rosie the Riveter.” After World War II, when women were forced to return their job to the men, their ideals of family and marriage change. They longer believe they needed a men to support them because they could be independent and support

    Read More

  • The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter

    1656 Words  | 4 Pages

    The film titled, “The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter”, looks at the roles of women during and after World War II within the U.S. The film interviews five women who had experienced the World War II effects in the U.S, two who were Caucasian and three who were African American. These five women, who were among the millions of women recruited into skilled male-oriented jobs during World War II, shared insight into how women were treated, viewed and mainly controlled. Along with the interviews are clips from U.S. government propaganda films, news reports from the media, March of Time films, and newspaper stories, all depicting how women are to take "the men’s" places to keep up with industrial production, while reassured that their duties were fulfilling the patriotic and feminine role. After the war the government and media had changed their message as women were to resume the role of the housewife, maid and mother to stay out of the way of returning soldiers. Thus the patriotic and feminine role was nothing but a mystified tactic the government used to maintain the American economic structure during the world war period. It is the contention of this paper to explore how several groups of women were treated as mindless individuals that could be controlled and disposed of through the government arranging social institutions, media manipulation and propaganda, and assumptions behind women’s tendencies which forced “Rosie the Riveter” to become a male dominated concept.

    Read More

  • Women in America

    1203 Words  | 3 Pages

    Americans are multicultural, descended from multiple geographic, ethnic and racial backgrounds. The original American colonies were formed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with uneven gender ratios. Equality of the sexes did not exist until education became a major impact because the people needed an educated citizenry capable of self-government. The earliest British colonists migrated to the New World to flee religious prosecution and because of the economic opportunity. It was a chance for them to live the way they wanted without anyone interfering, a chance of a better life. Basically Europeans migrated to America for better opportunities. While some unions were the result of intermarriage or consensual relationships. There was also widespread sexual exploitation of black women by white slave-owners. Ancestry influences identities, but its impact is facilitated by the number of factors including ethnic amalgamation, the consciousness and conservation of knowledge about ancestral roots, fundamental beliefs about race and racial divisions and the number of generations uninvolved from the arrival of immigrant ancestors. The definition of being an “American” broadened and became more inclusive over the past two centuries in that women are a distinctively classified identity that have evolved throughout historical patterns. Women became inclusive when the constitution was ratified. Amendment 15th gave all men the right to vote but not women until the 19th Amendment in 1920. Free women were citizens, but their rights in property-owning, voting and other matters were limited.

    Read More

  • Women in World War One

    918 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women were not only separated by class, but also by their gender. No woman was equal to a man and didn’t matter how rich or poor they were. They were not equal to men. Women couldn’t vote own business or property and were not allowed to have custody of their children unless they had permission from their husband first. Women’s roles changed instantly because of the war. They had to pick up all the jobs that the men had no choice but to leave behind. They were expected to work and take care of their homes and children as well. Working outside the home was a challenge for these women even though the women probably appreciated being able to provide for their families. “They faced shortages of basic goods, lack of childcare and medical care, little training, and resistance from men who felt they should stay home.” (p 434)

    Read More

  • Traumatic Experience Essay

    527 Words  | 2 Pages

    Growing up, I always found sanctuary confiding in my father’s youngest brother, Dean; I had a favorite uncle, as we all seem to have at one point in our lives. Since Uncle Dean was the youngest, I looked at him as the coolest out of the myriad of older relatives. He often bought me ice cream sundaes and showered me with aimless jokes and “piggy-back” rides. Most of the time spent visiting my father on weekends, was actually spent wrestling with Uncle Dean or playing video games until the break of daylight. I looked forward weekends, because that meant “Uncle Dean Time”. I expected to hang out with my Uncle Dean every Friday and Saturday. In fact, I knew for certain he would be waiting at my father’s home with some brand new clothes or any other prize vied for by a 10 year old. Little did I know that over the next coupe of years, I would gain knowledge of one of the most important lessons of life: value those dearest to you, for you never know how long they will be in your company.

    Read More

  • Gender And Family Roles In The American Family

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since the dawn of time, men and women have held very distinct places in society. For example, in regards to family life, men have traditionally served as the hunters, gatherers, and providers. Conversely, women have historically served as cooks, cleaners, and caretakers to their husbands and children. For centuries, these family roles were the cultural norm, especially in the typical American household. However, in recent years, society has seen a gradual shift away from this family dynamic. Many married women are no longer just caretakers, but are major contributors to the family income. In fact, there are many households in which the husband stays at home and the wife works. This change reflects a shift in societal attitudes and expectations

    Read More

  • Gender And Gender Differences: The Gender Roles Of Society

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    Society is comprised of two different sexes and they are “men” and “women.” A person’s “sex” is determined when they are conceived and whether they are male or female will attribute to their upbringing. Women are known as the “reproductive” ones and therefore, are more nurturing and usually tend to the home. In contrast, a man exhibits different qualities such as masculinity, strength, and in most cases, superior to women. The two articles written by Joan Scott and Alice Kessler define the gender roles of women (and men) and elaborate on the differences that these two “sexes” have to endure in every aspect of their lives.

    Read More

  • Gender Similarities And Differences

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gender roles and identity are constantly shifting throughout different societal generations. Men and woman both have notable similarities and differences in genders and they each contribute to their personalities and actions. In the past men have been viewed as a more dominant sex in society over women, both in careers, home life, and sexually, however, today women have bridged many of the gaps and society is accepting a more equal view of genders. The following examines the similarities and differences between men and woman by looking at biological characteristics, gender roles, and sexual responses.

    Read More

More about Gender Differences In American Culture

Open Document