Gender Studies
My decision to take the extracts from literary discourse to illustrate the differences between the male and female manner of writing was dictated by the fact that it is more interesting to search for such differences in this very discourse, then in scientific or newspaper, where there are strict rules of how to write (non-personal narration, non-emotiveness, usage of terms; laconic phrases, etc.)
In literary discourse one may write whatever one wishes.
(Jane Austen. Pride Prejudice)
After a week spent in professions of love and schemes of felicity, Mr Collins was called from his amiable Charlotte by the arrival of Saturday. The pain of separation, might be alleviated on his side, by preparations for the reception of his bride; as he had reason to hope, that shortly after his next return into the Hertfordshire, the day would be fixed that was to make him the happiest of men. He took leave of his relations at Longbourn with as much solemnity as before; wished his fair cousins health and happiness again, and promised their father another letter for thanks.
(F. Scott Fitzgelald. Tender is the Night)
Rosemary had another dinner date, a birthday party for a member of the company. Dick ran into a Collis Clay in the lobby, but he wanted to dine alone and pretended an engagement at the Excelsior. He drank a cocktail with Collis and his vague dissatisfaction crystallized as impatience – he no longer had an excuse for playing truant to the clinic. This was less an infatuation than a romantic memory. Nicole was his girl – too often he was sick at heart about her, yet she was his girl. Time with Rosemary was self-indulgence – time with Collis was nothing plus nothing.
Already from the structure of the passage it is visible which passage was written by a woman and which by a man. Austen writes the events without any consequence, together with her thoughts and comments, whereas Fitzgerald, by contrast, enumerates the events in strict consecutive order.
In addition, Austen uses more emotional and subjective adjectives to describe people and their state.
It was counted that the female author uses verbs almost half less then the male author does (7:13).
In the domain of punctuation, the gender differences are the most conspicuous: Jane Austen tends to the idiosyncratic usage of semi-columns; she does not use dashes in the given passage, whereas F. Scott Fitzgelald uses three dashes (as the indicator of reason-result understanding of events; ٭he prefers to explain the human behavior using a dash) and not a single semi-column.
Gender Matters is a collection of various essays on feminist linguistic texts analysis, by Sara Mills. Mills develops methods of analyzing literary and non-literary texts, in addition to conversational analysis based on a feminist approach. The author draws on data from her collection of essays gathered over the last two decades on feminism during the 1990s. The essays focus on gender issues, the representation of gender in reading, writing, and in public speaking. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of feminists’ analysis of sexism in literature and the relation between gender and politeness. The article is informative for my research paper, as my topic is going to cover language analysis of the text and who women reading and writing differs according to the discourse analysis within linguistic, psychology, case studies audiences and surveys. The book would be helpful, particularly the last three essays that discusses gender, public speaking, the question of politeness and impoliteness in public speaking. Mills’ analysis is not complete without including the idea of global notions of both women and men, to see whether women and men write and read in the same way globally. Therefore, an update would enrich the book’s discussion section. Although, Mills addresses the class and race theme in language and public speaking, I will only look into the role of language that plays a part in doing or reducing gender in literary, non-literary texts and in conversation.
Much discrimination and misogyny still permeate our social stratosphere, but while reading written words one cannot help but to be placed in the author’s shoes, and therefore accept their words as our own. Cain writes, “Many of the texts written by women during this time reflect the idea that there are natural differences between the sexes. Usually a female narrator…privately addresses a mainly female audience about issues that might seem mainly to concern women” (825). Because the text is written in a female voice, the reading adapts themselves to that voice, and gives credit to the
According to American academy and adolescent psychiatry, about 120,000 children are adopted in the United States alone. That is a lot of children that need to find a new home to stay in. Not only do adoptions affect the child after they are adopted, no matter the age; but adoption also affects the parents giving their child up for adoption. There are many types of adoptions. Along with that, there are many reasons for giving the child up for adoption. There are three main perspectives that I will be talking about. One function would be the structural functionalism. How society cooperates. The second would be the conflict perspective. The third would be symbolic interactionism approach. There are many different aspects of adoption, making it
Gender theorists and researchers analyze gender partly to understand the perpetuation of inequality and propose changes to diminish inequality. A central question researchers explore is whether challenges to gender inequality need to occur at the interactional or institutional level. The status characteristic and doing gender approach investigates power, agency and change within social interactions. Gendered organizational theories examine power, agency and structure within institutions. Each approach shifted research and theory on gender in interactions and institutions, and challenged the notion that gender is static. The two approaches scrutinize the social construction of gender, biological determinism created
These theories, methods, assessments along with the evidence of success in reading at home make it clear that it is extremely important we try our hardest to support literacy in every child. All students can learn. It’s just a matter of making materials interesting and relevant to them, challenging them (but not to hard), and supporting them along the way.
Throughout previous class periods in English, I’ve encountered a lot of class discussion about gender role in the recent units we’ve read. Since the beginning of the era when gender quality came upon there has always been an issue. These problems people face have been expressed in their daily living. Several authors such as Eveline, Charlotte Gilman, Virginia Woolf, and Mary Leapor have well-known writings on gender issues. In their writings, they express how they felt about the issues of the gender and what they’ve experienced while being held to an expectation.
The world one lives in it happens to grasp that all humans are designed as equals. This is far-off from reality based on how this society is operating. The principle of equality does not imply that everyone is the same, nevertheless that everyone should be treated as equals unless special circumstances apply. When it comes to the two sexes, everything that comes in its bounds is either biased intentionally or unintentionally, either way it continues. A gender role is a set of societal norms dictating what is acceptable or appropriate for a person’s sex. One could be aware of the characteristics and factors of identity that enables others to treat another differently by analyzing the aspects of society through race, religion, language, sexual orientation, economic status and also the level of education. The theory of equality is somewhat understandable, but what about the female population? Where is their equality in this society?
We can’t avoid gender. It is our everyday interactions with others. An ongoing accomplishment rather than what we are. “Doing gender” is a performance and can depend on our situation and how it relates to us. We judge others based on their performances and are held accountable for our own (policing). We usually follow these gendered rules due to habit and policing. Additionally, we are rewarded on how we do gender. Gendered rules are a way to interact with others, whether we are masculine or feminine (gender binary). We learn the rules of how to belong and define ourselves. We learn the norms, values, and beliefs of society. We internalize and accept the rules of socialization and might even
Feminist Theory is an aspect of considering feminism as having been based on socio-phenomenon issues rather than biological or scientific. It appreciates gender inequality, analyzes the societal roles played by feminists in a bid to promote the interests, issues and rights of women in the society. It is also based on the assumption that women play subsidiary roles in the society. The whole idea of feminism has however experienced hurdles in the form of stereotyping by the wider society. This paper tries to examine some of the effects of stereotypes that feminism goes through, what other philosophers say and the way forward towards ending stereotyping.
When it comes to citizenship, equal rights for all members of the society are one of the attributes of many beliefs. Feminists, among others, believes that this conceals the reality of unfair nation on the foundation of class, ethnicity, race and, what this paper particularly focus on, gender, which can render women subject to discrimination (Meer and Sever, 2004). The outcome of this is inequality in society where because of the source of their divergence, some people are being excluded from their rights and responsibilities. Having understood the reasons why feminists criticize the notion of citizenship and inequality, this essay is going to do a specific case study on gendered nationality. This essay will first look at the current discrimination that women face in the form of nationality, how culture and religion play a huge role in relation and how women themselves have to fight for their own right to reduce gender discrimination in their laws. Lastly, in the conclusion, recommendations will be included in what I think would help in diminishing gender discrimination against women in nationality.
Since 1900, the share of women in the U.S. labor force has tripled, and it continues to rise (Macionis, 2015). However, according to a study by Koch, Konigorski, and Sieverding (2014), when placed in a job interview situation, women who interact with subtly sexist men tend to perform worse on areas in which women are negatively stereotyped, such as math. This may make is difficult for women to enter professions which are dominated by men, including engineering or corporate management. The theory that will be explored in this paper is conflict theory, specifically gender-conflict theory.
There is no doubt that the literary written by men and women is different. One source of difference is the sex. A woman is born a woman in the same sense as a man is born a man. Certainly one source of difference is biological, by virtue of which we are male and female. “A woman´s writing is always femenine” says Virginia Woolf
Women and gender studies contribute greatly to our understanding of the social and cultural world we inhabit. Studying the complex issues of this field has instituted many key insights. Two major insights that positively affected our society are the awareness through learning and through this awareness activism that can ensue.
In the beginning, Mills discusses theoretical elements and has labeled this section as “General Theoretical Issues” and the second part is comprised of analysis having three sub chapters. The main section of the book examines feminist models of the text and investigates language typologies. According to Sara Mills, language is a form of social communication, a tool to transfer information and a set of mutually decided linguistic choices in any system (Crystal: 1995, 18). Language functions as sharing of thoughts in a framework where options are equally exclusive. Mills criticizes the traditional method to deal with legendary writings which often neglect the fact that the writer has no command over the stuff, being delivered by him or her. Another drawback of this conventional approach is that only the texts which have literary worth are selected for analysis (e.g. the works of Shakespeare, D.H. Lawrence, Beckett and so on) and women’s writings for stylistic analysis are often overlooked. TorilMoi (1985) and Elaine Showalter (1978) are of the view that “women’s writings have frequently been barred from standard status, by the procedure named phallocentric
Performance management is the process of establishing a favorable working environment for a given organization such that every employee will have the ability to work at their level best to achieve the organizations goals and objectives. This process basically involves developing clear job description, acquisition of proper work force, providing appropriate training of employees and designing equitable compensation plans along promoting career development for the employees. Managing performance in any given corporate body is one of the most important contributions that managers should put into consideration. Setting up goals, laying down objectives and strategizing on appropriate methods to achieve such goals are the main essentials of performance management. Good management plan ensures regular coordination and efficiency in the organization system.