Gender Roles: The Female Role in Society

The female gender role in society has created a torturous fate for those who have failed in their role as a woman, whether as a mother, a daughter, or a wife. The restrictive nature of the role that society imposes on women causes extreme repercussions for those women who cannot fulfill their purpose as designated by society. These repercussions can be as common as being reprimanded or as severe as being berated or beaten by a husband or father. The role that women were given by society entails being a submissive homemaker who dotes on her husband and many children. The wife keeps the home impeccably neat, tends to the children and ensures their education and well-being, and acts obsequiously to do everything possible to please her husband. She must be cheerful and sweet and pretty, like a dainty little doll. The perfect woman in the eyes of society is exactly like a doll: she always smiles, always looks her best and has no feelings or opinions that she can truly call her own. She responds only to the demands of her husband and does not act or speak out of turn. A woman who speaks her mind or challenges the word of any man, especially her husband, is undesirable because she is not the obedient little doll that men cherish. Women who do not conform to the rules that society has set for them are downgraded to the only feature that differentiates them from men; their sex. Society’s women do not speak or think of sex unless their husband requires it of them. But when a woman fails to be the doll that a man desires, she is worth nothing more than a cheap sex object and she is disposed of by society.

We as a society do not like to admit that we marginalize women, specifically those of lower socioeconomic class, but we enforce the soci...

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... treated like property and abused to make them comply with the demands of men. Not even the police in Cambodia tried to help these girls because they had no control over the misogynistic culture; they often allowed the crimes being committed in exchange for money. Neth explained this corrupt system during her time with Kristof and WuDunn. When Kristof asked her why she never went to the police to help her escape she explained that, “the police wouldn’t help me because they get bribes from the brothel owners”. The influence that the brothel owners had throughout Cambodia extended to the one place where girls like Rath, Neth and Momm should feel safe and protected; but as a result of the lack of intervention by the government and the public’s denial of the problem, girls and young women have become victims of the vile sex industry and the cycle of abuse will continue.