Gender roles in different cultures

[Admin]

Hello,
Our topic for next week is gender roles in different cultures. I’d like you to read an article/ watch a video concerning this topic and post a short comment concerning what you’ve read or seen (what was it about? was it interesting? did it meet your expectations? would you recommend it? etc.) along with 3-4 words/ expressions from the text.

The words/ expressions should be defined using a monolingual dictionary, e.g.

www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/

www.macmillandictionary.com/

Also, you’ll need to post a discussion question concerning gender roles.

See you on Monday!

[Thomas]

Hello everyone,
I chose to read an article about gender differences in India concerning employment: www.voxeu.org/article/what-explains-gender-differences-india-what-can-be-done-promote-shared-prosperity

Short summary:

This article deals with the India's gender balance in labour force paticipation and entrepreneurship. This balance remains among the lowest in the world. So this economic website, explains how and why this gender balance is such inequal,
and gives advices to change it. For example, women often bare a larger share of the time and responsibility for household activities, so they need to work neraby there house. Or travel in India can be limited and umpredictable. In order to solve women employment, according to the Vox, India must have better transport infrastructures. This article is interesting, but it is very specific. If you want some information, go directly to the conclusion.


New words:
-Litteracy: the ability to read and write
-Incumbent: a person who has an official position
-Emphasize: to give special importance to something
-Stringent: very strict and that must be obeyed

(source: Oxford)

[Pierre.N]

Good afternoon,

I have read an article on the gender roles in south africa because I personnally lack of information about it and I found interesting to see anything about it, my article is:

interuwcmag.wordpress.com/2011/11/10/gender-roles-and-south-africa/

This article is quite interesting at the beginning because it shows the feeling of people about gender roles in south africa, but I find that the end of the article is not really linked to gender roles. That it is more relative to the vision of hetrosexuality and homosexuality in Africa, even if there is a link between it and the gender roles, I don't think that it is the main topic in it. Nevertheless, the article gives an opinion which is quite objective and seems to have good information at the origin of the article.


Words:

Nurture somebody/something:
To care for and protect somebody/something while they are growing and developing.

Deem something + noun/adj. deem something to be something deem (that)…:
To have a particular opinion about something.

Stem from something:
To be the result of something.

Regimented:
Arranged in strict groups, patterns, etc.

Warped (disapproving) (of a person):
Having ideas that most people think are strange or unpleasant.

[Eva]

Hello everyone,

I read this article about gender roles in the USA: www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/24/female-breadwinners/2015559/

Comments:

This article is interesting because it shows us how families behave when the mother actually works more than the father. Usually, people consider that women have to take care of their family. Women who work a lot are sometimes seen as sacrificing their families over their careers.
Many graphs show that nowadays, the rate of women who work more than men increases.
Finally, the article gives many examples of real-life situations where couples learnt to live their life besides the conventions dictated by our society.
This article was also interesting because it related to me as a woman who wants to be an engineer.

Vocabulary:
outearn: to earn more than
booming company: a company that has a sudden increase in trade and economic activity; a period of wealth and success
breadwinner: a person who supports their family with the money they earn
startling: extremely unusual and surprising

[Jean-Baptiste]

Hello everyone,

I read an article about gender roles in Japan: www.economist.com/news/briefing/21599763-womens-lowly-status-japanese-workplace-has-barely-improved-decades-and-country

Comments:

This article is really interesting because it speaks about an unusual case of gender roles. Indeed Japan is a rich country where women aren't used to work. Due to their history and their culture most of Japanese women are full-time housewives and feminism has remained a timid force in Japan.
But the article also explains that this way of thinking starts to change in the country, and that the government make everything to permit women to access to better positions in companies.
Finally, I found it really interesting because there is a lot of information about Japanese society, with diferent types of sources (literature, surveys...)

Vocabulary:
kindergartens :a school or class to prepare children aged five for school
dearth (of something): a lack of something; the fact of there not being enough of something
pamper somebody (sometimes disapproving): to take care of somebody very well and make them feel as comfortable as possible
Wage: a regular amount of money that you earn, usually every week, for work or services

[Adrien]

Hello,

The article i decided to read is about the gender inequality in the UK :
www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2013/dec/06/gender-equality-women-stereotypes-stop-progress

This article explain that there is more men than women that have a work with high responsabilities (for exemple, women represents 22% of MPs and 20% of university professors). And despite the "Equal Pay Act" in 1975 they're less paid.
The interesting part of the article is about the stereotypes : we expect than men are strong and skilled so a man who want to be a "stay-at-home" dad will be criticized. And it's the same for a woman with leadership and responsabilities, it's not what people are expecting so they don't like when it happens.
And it also talk about a research  by Catalyst which show that companies with more women than men are more efficient than the others.


vocabulary :
    bias : a strong feeling in favour of or against one group of people, or one side in an argument, often not based on fair judgement
    to arise : to happen (but more formal)
    MP : member of parliament

[Pierre L.]

Good night everybody! I'm not late yet !

I watched a video about the gender roles in th video games culture: Tropes vs women in video games : The damsel in distress
www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6p5AZp7r_Q

Comment :
Acording to the Youtuber Anita Sarkeesian, feminie characters in videos games are too often shown as victims who need to be saved by male characters. She thinks that game developers treats female characters as only goals to rich (Caricatural example: Mario fights the monster to get the weak and fragile princess Peach). Even thought I don't agree with everything she says, this person has got some interesting points of view of the subject.

Vocabulary:
-Trope : a theme that is important or repeated in literature, films/movies, etc.
-plot device (specific word): the very center of the scenario, the motivation of the hero
-sexism (no one posted this !) :the unfair treatment of people, especially women, because of their sex


Discussion proposition :
How do culture relay gender stereotypes ?

[Marie-Agnès]

Hi,
I have chosen an article about gender roles in england : ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/10251/e08hill.htm

This article deals with gender roles in England more particularly during World War II and after.
This article is interesting because we can realize that before this war. Women stayed in the house with children while after they started to work in the factories. It was an important step for the society because now, there is less inequality than before between the two genders. I think that the women had gained a confidence level in themselves. This confidence had permitted to influence the society by the new “workers” (women). I think the women had changed their roles in the society.

To sift: to examine information in order to find what you are looking for
Ream: a large quantity of writing
To take care: to be careful

[Marie]

Hello, I chose to read an article about the role of women in China : www.fairobserver.com/region/central_south_asia/role-women-china/

This article deals with the fact that even though communism tended to push men and women to work together as equals, women only had a role of leadership within the family content. Nowadays, women are still ofter considered as counterparts for men. This phenomenon is partly due to the one-child Policy.
The situation tends to improve, but slowly, as few women are hired for important jobs.

[Charles]

Hello everyone,
I watched an short video on youtube about Gender Roles in other countries. I think this video was a bit "pro women freedom" and I fond it Subjective. The woman how speaks descibe us culture gender in South america as a old fashion witch we had in europe until the 30's or 40's. She discribes africa women as slave the slaves of their husbands because it's him how decides the child education for example. More, let us conceal, every women in africa suffer because they must to go to find water and it's really heavy.
First of all, I think this video is not for people who want to really know the gender roles in other contries, even if it's the title of the video. It's interesting to know about different culture, differents opinions, differents way of life. But when you describe these you have to be realy objective. I had this impression that this video told us how women are mistreated outside Europe. To understand and know a culture, I don't think it's a good way to compare it with our. If we compare with our, we definitively are going to find any absurdity, like women mistreated. And we think it's women mistrated because women in europe are not considered like this. But if african males people studied our europenne culture maybe they will find that man here are mistreated.

Vocabulary :
reach : To arrive in a place, or to enter a place
evolve from: a debate as to whether birds evolved from dinosaurs

[charles]

sorry this video is www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHQSCzmBIYw