reply to Zulma

Zulma
We shape our culture’s views of men and women. Our cultures usually reflect our response to gender issues. This is why some people react to gay marriage because while they were growing up this was taboo in their society. Therefore, our generation faces a lot of challenges, and we need more time to frame the issues of our era and grow awareness of how the interaction of communication, gender, and culture privileges help some people and oppress others. The new generation will decide how to respond to social practices that produce differences in the quality of life and opportunities available to various groups in our culture.

reply to Anjum

Anjum

Some times culture and stereotypes affect our choices of career. Women, known as the caregivers, they nurture their kids and are always willing to sacrifice for the sake of their family. They always put family first it is their decisions to pick a job where they are around their children all the time. In my case both my husband and I were working in NY and it was, my decision to quite my job and go back to school to be a certified teacher because I concluded that if I did not do that my husband would not do it. Because his culture has an impact on him that woman are the ones who take care of the house. However, I just meet a couple in my daughter’s school and I found out that the father is staying home and he is the one in charge of picking and dropping the kids and the wife is the professional. So now a day our society is changing, because a lot of men and women are exchanging roles at home.

assigment 6

Few days ago, one of my 15 years old students approach me telling me that yesterday she went with her friend to have an abortion. In addition, she said that the clinic did not require her parent’s consent, while when she went to have tattoo on her arm, she was asked for her parent’s consent. I was surprised that for a minor to have an abortion without her parent’s consent is allowed to have an abortion in this country especially with the harmful side effects. As soon as I got home, I did some research about the topic and I found out that there are many states who request that minors must have parental approval for most types of medical procedures. In the United States, some states have Parental Involvement Laws. This law requires one of two types of parental involvement. Overall, parental involvement laws reduce the number of teenage abortions. Because some of pregnant minors might be pressured into having an abortion by an older boyfriend, to conceal the fact that he is guilty of statutory rape, and to avoid that parents should be notified. In addition, the parents of the minor are financially responsible for any complications resulting from the abortion. Notification and consent laws give parents a chance to counsel their teenage daughters about the possible consequences of abortion.

The moral and legal aspects of abortion are subject to intense social debate in many parts of the world. Aspects of this debate can include the public health impact of unsafe or illegal abortion as well as legal abortion's effect upon crime rates. Current laws pertaining to abortion are diverse. Religious, moral, and cultural sensibilities continue to influence abortion laws throughout the world. The right to life, the right to liberty, the right to security of person, and the right to reproductive health are major issues of human rights that are sometimes used as justification for the existence or absence of laws controlling abortion.

relpy to shonte

You are right Shonte, the number of women who work outside there home and have children is increasing. Mothers today, have either to work outside of home for financial support or to be equals with men. Today, most men and women work outside their home, few people can afford nannies or maids. In this case, the responsibility of taking care of the home and family are not easily met .so the mother is the one who have to sacrificed her job and take care of her home in this case the women career have to suffer more than the men do. Some women do not want to quite work and stay home to raise their children which is their choice but when I had my children, it was my decision to stay home with them the first two years. However, the problem I face it is I could not find a job right a way .but for me it is worth it to be with my child. In addition, if I stay at work I will feel so guilty that I am banding my child. The rate of women that have to work is increasing because of the increasing rates of divorce, causing mothers/women to have to go to work in order to support themselves or their child. Even so, many women go to work even if they are married because some households need two incomes in order to support their families.

assigment 5

In the United States, women and men have relatively equal access to educational opportunities. Both males and females come across gender expectations and pressures in school from kindergarten through college. In the past women were discouraged from advanced studies because many believed that if women got a good education, it might “unsex” women. The only field that was proper for women was either a nurse or teacher. These two professions present women as caring, loving mothers.
Now a day, females achieve better at all levels of education and earn more and higher degrees than men do. Despite that, not all barriers have vanished. Women still face few barriers because of cultural stereotypes of femininity. “Many studies show that women score lower than males on math and science.” (192). These studies think that females are less able than men in math and science. From my life examples, we are eight girls in my household and none of us wanted to enter the math and science field because the stereotypes in my cultures that woman do not perform well in those fields. Males are more likely than females to be encouraged to pursue careers in math and science, where as females are to be encouraged to enter careers that involve more direct interaction with people. In today school, young women tend to exceed in advance studies in high schools around the country. For example in my son’s AP science class, he have four boys and twenty girls. That shows us that more and more females are gaining further educational success.

reply to assignment 4

Hi Zulma
You are right, there are many children, who need good homes to offer them love and care. During my work in school, I meet many kids who are being raised by their Grand parents or aunts and uncles. Because their biologically parents left them or could not provide them with the basic needs and stability.
The Topical family used to be mother and a father but nowadays family structure change with the high rate of divorce and same sex relationship, we see single mother and single father raising children in their own and provide them with love and care they need. Because of these changes in our family structure who is to say who should or should not be a lowed to adopt if the fit the requirement to raise a child.

assignment 4

As I was reading chapter 10, I read about the number of mothers with children, who they have difficult time to work outside of their home and keep their jobs. The stereotype of women as a mother has a literal form. Women employees who have or plan to have children are often perceived as less serious professionals than men or women who are not mothers. My previous job in the Untied Nation my employer asked me in my interview how soon I was planning to have children. I said in couple of years, after that I asked why he has to ask such a question, he said we don’t prefer women who have children, because they take many days off when their children are sick or have school activity and that will effect the work and her performance. In addition, mother focuses more on mothering than working. Therefore, it is illegal to stereotype women in work places as mothers or to act toward them in ways that reflect the belief that work and motherhood are incompatible. The assumption that serious careers and full time job reflects social relationship of previous eras in which men were professionals and had stay at home wives to care for the home and children. Today, most women and men work outside of the home, which make it difficult to start families and raise children. When they start families usually, the women’s job is the one that has to suffer not the man’s. When couples decide to have children both of them have to share the responsibility of taking care of those children.

Should gender be a consideration for adoption?

The primary function of the family is to reproduce society, either biologically, socially, or both. From the children’s perspective, the family is a family of orientation; family serves to locate children socially, and plays a major role in their life.
However, producing children is not the only function of the family .The family is considered to encourage love and trust and a place where warmth, tenderness and understanding can be expected from a loving mother, a loving father or whomever is the caregiver.
We can’t say that traditional couples are a better option to raise a child. There are many children who lost their parents and they are waiting for somebody to love them and take care of them. The ability for one to adopt should not be based on one’s sexual orientation. If the child can be given a good home, than it should not matter.

Media and women

How does Media present women?

Over the history media presented women as mother, care givers and housewives also as thin, beautiful, sexy and independent. However, this is not the same image anymore. In many TV shows, they show women as sex objects. I always heard about the show sex and the city but I never watched it until I took sitcom class, which I had to watch one of the first episodes. In my opinion, the show presents women in different shapes or stereotypes, not the women who are faithful, pretty, and deferential and focus on home and family. However, in this show we are seeing new images of women who are independent, aggressive and overactive sexually

The show expressed adult comedy and sex in an open way. The women discuss their sexual desires, fantasies, and their love life. The women have open discussions about romance and sexuality especially since they are single women and they are in their mid-thirties living in the big city. This was a big for the American culture from the 1950’s and 1960’s to the 1990’s. These women want to free themselves from the control of men and want to support themselves and to be in charge of their lives. However, at the same time, they are lost for looking for true love and commitment to start a family with the right man. They are career-holding women, who are strong, successful, and outspoken. They are loyal to each other, but are still in need for family, which tends to be a women’s main role in society. The show tells us this is the life and sexual behavior of many urban, American, single, women. “From newspapers to video games and online communities, media shapes our understandings of gender. By presenting us with images of women, men, and relationships, media advance ideals of what is desirable in women and men.” (pg 258)

One of the things that are clear to me, media has changed the image of the female role traditionally and has become somewhat submissive. We see the role of women change slowly starting with the strong female mother who loves to tend to her house and we end up with the fragile single women who longs to be independent but at the same time wants a man in her life. Women have taken a big leap in American society.

second week assignment

Growing up as a child one remembers how their parents treated them. For example, a boy might remember his dad for yelling at him. The boy will grow up to remember all the bad things his father did to him and vow to himself not to be like that. Usually one learns from the mistake of others. In this case, a father whose father never spent much time with him would try to spend plenty of time with his own son. The father would remember the pains of his father ignoring him and would not want his son to have those same feelings of loneliness.

“Parents play a major role in shaping children’s understanding of gender in general and their own gender in particular.” (pg 171). Fathers encourage in children to behave according to their gender. In sons, they require them to be more aggressive, independent, competitive and overall tough. For daughters fathers want them to be more emotional, gentle, and lady-like. When a father interacts with children, they tend to talk more with their daughters and engage in activities more with sons. Mothers tend to talk more openly about sensitive subjects such as emotions and relationships with daughters than with sons. Both mothers and fathers talk more personally with daughters than with sons. This explains why daughters tend to explain things more freely with their parents than sons do. Fathers typically spend time with their children playing physically more than taking care of them. They like to engage in play that is more physically exciting and they help children develop skills and conquer challenges. Today’s father talks more with children than fathers in previous generations did. “Fathers more than mothers stretch children by urging them to compete, achieve, take risks, and move beyond their current levels of ability.”(pg 169)

Mother Day

Mother’s day is a very special day for me especially since I have been living far from my mother for the past 17 years. Also in my country we celebrate mother day in the fist day of spring, March 21 of every year and we always say, mothers are like the ground it brings life to her kids and she sees them bloom like the flowers in the spring. When I was young girl, I always save my allowance to buy my mother’s gift for mother’s day. One day I cam home late after school and my mother was so angry at my but I could not tell her that I was shopping around for her mother’s day gift I took the punishment without complain. This is my first mother’s day with my children after separation with my husband and it was very thoughtful because I woke up in the morning and I found that they wrote We love you mom with flower petals on my kitchen counter.Sometimes you cannot find the right card to express your feelings to you mother or your caregiver so something new like what my kids did will be very thoughtful. In addition on mother’s day, I called all my friends who are mothers and wished them happy mother’s day. I told my kids to remember their baby sitter in NY and call her because she took care of them when I worked so she was like mother to them.-Sireen
May 21, 2008 6:38:00 PM