Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Yang Cox
English 115
Professor Rodrick
Culture and society play a prominent role in the way that Womens’ identities are shaped.
Women are forced to conform and exhibit certain traits and characteristics to fit the ideal image
of what a “real” woman should be. In these cases that these expectations are not met then they
are no longer respected and seen as a woman. This then leads to women conforming to society's
image and stereotypes placed on them. Culture is another reason why women feel the need to
conform and accept to these paradigms that are forced upon them. It is difficult to reject these
paradigms because it is how women are taught to grow up and are enclosed into a realm which
they must live up to. As opposed to viewing the reason as factors they are built within each other
to make up the paradigm. Society is the realm which controls the culture then which the culture
creates these gender roles and sexual conventions. Gender roles, Society, and Culture are built
within each other like a Russian doll to force women to conform to rules and expectations due to
constant pressure.
Society is made up of the whole population including people in politics. Just recently for
the last 98 years women were given the right to vote. On August 18, 1820, was when the 19th
amendment was adopted and this right to vote was granted to women. Not only has society
placed social restrictions on women but in fact politics too. Shortly after this amendment this was
the start of the women’s revolution. By 1850 was the first National Woman's Rights Convention.
Now seen today women are changing but still society is opposed to this. This is proven by the
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wage gap between genders. According to “The Gender Wage Gap: 2017; Earnings Differences
by Gender, Race, and Ethnicity” by Ariane Hegewisch, M.Phil., in 2017 the median annual
earning for men was $52,146 as opposed to women's wage was $41,977. This shines the light
Another unbalance seen in the work force is the gender stereotype job. Nurses are more
women prominent and Doctors are more men prominent jobs. Due to these views men are least
likely to be nurses and creates the gender roles in jobs. Societies fundamentals came from the
great Aristotle, “The relationship between male and female is superior to inferior.”
(Chinchankar) This established the thought process as how women should be perceived and their
role. The speaker, Ria Chinchankar, from the TedxYouth, “Gender Roles in Society”, stated
multiple studies done in Chicago, Washington, and even here in California which proved how
society impacts women. A certain stereotype believed women perform poorly in math as
opposed to men was put to the test. When asked to state gender women scored a 12 ½ compared
to the same exact test given, the difference being to disregard any gender stereotypes women
scored a 15. This proved the stereotype threat which causes women to feel and perform less due
to how society’s perception on women. The stereotype threat affects women in all aspects. This
creates unbalance to work forces as seen in construction work, computer programming, and other
jobs where it is a men dominant environment. In addition, Chinchankar mentioned the process
during the 1600 when the witch burnings occurred. Women either conformed to the society or
were condemned of witchcraft and burned. This created fear that caused women to stay in their
role. In today’s society it is similar to the social media shame which if a female wears short, skin
exposing clothes or posts a video acting in a provocating way, they are blasted with negative
comments and are put to shame. All these actions, ideas, and images are what subdue women in
our society.
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Gender roles have placed specific criteria for men and women to follow over the years.
Without a surprise these criteria are followed and seen in an everyday life. Women are supposed
to play a caregiver role, dress feminine, act polite, and accommodating. While on the other hand
men are supposed to play the “macho” role, show strongness, be aggressive, and bold. These
traits have led to strict views on women and creating stereotypical sexism. There are 4 types of
gender stereotypes according to Planned Parenthood. “1) Personality traits — For example,
women are often expected to be accommodating and emotional, while men are usually expected
to be self-confident and aggressive. 2) Domestic behaviors — For example, some people expect
that women will take care of the children, cook, and clean the home, while men take care of
finances, work on the car, and do the home repairs. 3) Occupations — Some people are quick to
assume that teachers and nurses are women, and that pilots, doctors, and engineers are men. 4)
Physical appearance — For example, women are expected to be thin and graceful, while men are
expected to be tall and muscular.”(What are Gender Roles and Stereotypes?) Certain acts are
required from each side of the gender roles to fit into their realm. For which ever reason these
criteria's are not met then the individual is criticized and creates the gender role stereotypes.
“Men and women are also expected to dress and groom in ways that are stereotypical to
their gender (men wearing pants and short hairstyles, women wearing dresses and make-up.”
(What are Gender Roles and Stereotypes?) If for any reason women do not conform and
accommodate these set of rules, they are not the ideal women and even called derogatory terms.
There is also such case when these stereotypes are overwhelming. For women this is called,
hyper femininity. “Hyper femininity is the exaggeration of stereotyped behavior that’s believed
to be feminine.” (What are Gender Roles and Stereotypes?) This not only forces women but
gives them no other choice to conform and not rebel against it. Women are enclosed, trapped
Every culture has different set of fundamentals. For the most part women in these
cultures are set to be submissive. In marriage women are submissive to their husbands. This is
seen in Hispanic, Muslim, Asian, and other cultures. Stated by Addeel Khan, from his article,
“Muslim and Asian Women Submissive or Society Submitting to Stereotypes?”, “As a Muslim
and an Asian I am disappointed at the perception among some sections of society that women in
Islam, or in Asian households, do not have a voice and are submissive. There are certainly
cultural practices in a number of communities - Muslim and non-Muslim, Asian and non-Asian -
around the world, which coupled with media stereotypes and unfortunate public statements from
those who should know better, help fuel the inaccuracies.” Women clean, care for children, stay
at home to please their husband. At the start of their childhood girls are taught to follow these
roles and no more. This is what makes it difficult to change or know something different. It
becomes an instinct to pursue what was taught and seen when growing up.
Not only ethnic cultures play a role but not we have developed a westernized culture
which has structured the way women are viewed. This westernized culture has taught women to
constantly compare themselves with top models and look for that size 0 shape, have a thigh gap,
be proana which means pro anorexia as stated by Ramsey. Meaghan Ramsey brought out to light
many keys points in her presentation about both women and men performance due to this
culture. Women and teens value themselves to the number of likes and views. Not only women
but teens are under this constant pressure by culture. This is the base of the problem. Young girls
are brought into this culture at an early age which they are beginning to develop and yet already
being exposed to this pressure. Image-Obsessed culture is what drives women's self-esteem
down along with their performance when given a task. It is proven 17% of women do not show
up for a job interview due to lack of confidence or lack of self-beauty. Every judgement is taken
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heavily and seriously. Ethnic cultures along with our westernized culture has kept and even
Women throughout the years have been taught to be submissive, dress accordingly, act a
certain way, and conform. Cultures have shaped these girls to grow up to fit the women roles
right when they are born. Society constantly presses these issues and gives them no other choice
to choose from. When a female decides to go against these rules placed upon them, they are not
lady like and are put to shame. Now gender roles just add on to this case. This reason is why
women have been forced on and keep in the role. From personal experience I am Ecuadorian and
Chinese. Both cultures involve women to be submissive and taught to be a house wife from an
early age. My mom was always in the kitchen providing food to the table. Whenever anyone was
sick, she was immediately there caring for us making sure we recovered. When it was time for
school, she got us all ready, dressed us, combed our hair, and made sure we ate breakfast. When
it came to decision making around the house it was surely my dad calling the shots. All the
financial situations my dad would handle it. I first hand experienced how women were brought
up and the effect of culture, gender role, and society correlate on women.
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Work Cited
Addeel Khan. “Muslim and Asian Women Submissive or Society Submitting to Stereotypes?”
Leadership Magazine, March 08, 2016. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/muslim-asian-
women-submissive-society-submitting-stereotypes-khan. Accessed 24 Oct. 2018.
Ariane Hegewisch, M.Phil. “The Gender Wage Gap: 2017; Earnings Differences by Gender,
Race, and Ethnicity.” Institute for Women's Policy Research, September 13, 2018.
https://iwpr.org/publications/gender-wage-gap-2017/. Accessed 05 Nov. 2018.
“What are Gender Roles and Stereotypes?” Planned Parenthood,
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/sexual-orientation-gender/gender-gender-
identity/what-are-gender-roles-and-stereotypes. Accessed 24 Oct. 2018.
Kasende Glorious. “Women’s Role in Society”. Linkedin, March 02, 2017.
http://leadershipmagazine.org/?p=12214. Accessed 24 Oct. 2018.
Meaghan Ramsey. “Why Thinking You’re Ugly is Bad for You”. TedTalk, September 2014.
https://www.ted.com/talks/meaghan_ramsey_why_thinking_you_re_ugly_is_bad_for_yo
u?language=en#t-554199. Accessed 24 Oct. 2018.
“Gender Roles in Society”. YouTube, Speaker Ria Chinchankar, June 22, 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz-hlV8o3y8. Accessed 24 Oct. 2018.