Gender Interview Research Paper

For the purpose of this assignment, I chose to interview my grandmother, Charmaine Tompkins. Growing up, my grandmother has been like a second mom to me because she has been so involved in my life. From staying at my grandparents house after I would get home from elementary school to having my grandmother come visit me while I’m at Purdue, she has really been there every step of the way. The second reason I chose to interview my grandmother was because after knowing her for 21 years, I’ve never gotten the chance to sit down with her and talk about herself and her life. My grandmother is so selfless. She puts every family member before herself, no matter what she has going on in her life. She’s always there to listen to what someone has to

The first theory I would like to discuss when thinking back on my grandmother’s life is doing gender. Doing gender is a pretty simple theory that discusses how we either obey or break gender rules. My grandmother grew up in a time where gender rules were set very strictly that people did not often break. She said that growing up, there were things that girls were supposed to do in their free time, such as making / playing with dolls, braiding hair, and cooking with their mother while boys were supposed to be playing outside, helping their father fix the car, and doing any dirty work. My grandmother also discussed how they were gender policed if they broke these gender norms. Gender policing is defined as how to appear / behave as a woman or man. She discussed the fact that people were very harsh on boys if they were to do something that was considered “feminine” such as cooking or indoor cleaning, while they were less harsh on girls for breaking these gender norms. A lot of the times when people break these gender norms they do something called “providing accounts”. This is when people try to make breaking a gender norm seem normal or okay. The final theory I will be talking about in my paper is ageism. Ageism is defined as a prejudice based on preference for the young. This has been around since my grandmother was in the workforce, which doesn’t surprise me in the least bit. Ageism is still a problem today when it comes to how how people treat the elderly and the opportunities they are