The article “The Role of Women’s Organizations and Groups in Community Development: A Case Study of Bolivia” has been written by Jane Benton in 1993 (Benton) extracted from the book “Different Places, Different Voices Gender and development in Africa, Asia, and Latin America”.
Jane Benton has been involved in the analysis of the situations arising in Bolivian, Agrarian regions and he has ascended a number of works related to such regions that are not easily accessible. Reviews from different sources including the Mountain Research and Development and the Geographical Journal indicate that Jane has good penetration in the Bolivian issues and his perspective is updated with respect to the gaps and efforts that are being made for the development of women and culture.
In this article, Jane explains about the efforts that are being made in order to bring the cultural development and to address the women’s role in the community. He develops his article basing on a research project in 1987 for investigation of the change and development of the lives of the women living in Lake Titicaca region. The article touches step by step the scenario that is prevailing and the development with respect to the non-Governmental Organizations that are emerging and struggling for the cultural development more importantly, women development in the region.
The article explains that the contribution made by the non-Governmental NGOs is significant in community development due to the non-bureaucratic and small scale programs. Several NGOs have emerged in the region working for the development of the society as a whole, especially after the drought of 1982-83 when bodies like UNICEF and CARE started to send their representatives and NGOs to Bolivia to serve and strive to deal with a bunch of crisis including poverty, hunger, education and gender discrimination. According to the Center of Documentation and Information as referred by the article, the number of NGOs has exceeded 500 in the region while the Center of Information and Women Development keeps track and documentation of the NGOs working solely for women development.
Jane Benton states in his article that the role of Women in grass root organizations is growing. He refers that half of the teachers in Bolivia are women and this is due to cumulative effort of the NGOs coming from abroad as well as the local organizations emerging and led by local Women. Ahead in his article pointing a major problem as well arising in the development of the local women and communication with them as young, attractive, but slightly silly upper class women in the NGOs are dealing with the old, poor women of the rural areas that embeds a communication gap between the two entities and thus entails problem in getting the local women’s affirmation to speak out for their rights and make efforts for their well-being. Jane refers a regular feminist program on Bolivian television,
“It shows well-dressed, well educated, attractive, but slightly stupid young women from the upper classes going out to interview women who are older, uglier, poorer and more intelligent than they are about the problems women face in contemporary Bolivian Society” (Benton 235).
Despite the fact that the awareness among the women to speak out and strive for their rights to involve in major decision making and community development, Jane points that majority has been living in isolation, not really concerned about their rights and role in the community and organizations. However, women from Aymara and Quechua are improving dramatically in claiming their rights and making their roles in the society with the access to education and development programs (Kinnaird and Momsen).
The article also mentions “Housewives Committee of the Siglo XX” in which, women who are the wives of the miners have emerged and have given a tough time to the government to focus the women development and involve them in the important decision making and development of the society, backed by several processions and meetings such as “March for Life and Peace” (Kinnaird and Momsen).
Major Themes of the Article
Jane summarizes in his article after reviewing different sources including Latina America and Caribbean Women’s Collective, Center of Information and Women Development data and speeches from the First National Congress of Bolivian Peasant Women that the roles of the women in the development of the society is growing with the advent of Governmental and Non-Governmental organization realizing the problems of poverty, hunger, gender discrimination, malnutrition and political issues and this has led to the improvement of women’s lives in different areas who are now getting access to education and community. He remarks that even more efforts might be needed to overcome all problems and make women realize about their role in the community.
Article Sequence and Terms
Jane Benton starts his article with the introduction of the situation prevailing in the Bolivian region. He mentions that the NGOs have emerged during the last 20 years and working actively for the development of culture and women in the region. The article then peeps into different movements and organizations including “Housewives Committee of the Siglo XX”, Center of Documentation and Information, Latina America and Caribbean Women’s Collective and Center of Information and Women Development to give a brief about how local women and organization are working to bring the change and how awareness is spreading with the access to information and education. He concludes that this provides strong base of shifting towards more developd and improved women’s role in Bolivia.
Works Cited
Benton, Jane. “Agrarian Reform in Theory and Practice.” Ashgate. Nottingham Trent University. Web.
The Role of Women’s Organizations and Groups in Community Development: A Case Study of Bolivia. London: Routledge Pres, 1993.
Kinnaird, Vivian and Janet Henshall Momsen. Different Places, Different Voices: Gender and Development in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. New York: Routledge, 1993.
The rise of department stores in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries brought changes to the nature of women’s employment. These stores hired more employees than traditional retail establishments, and women formed a significant proportion of this labor force. Working in department stores was lucrative for women because these stores offered a range of benefits that were absent in other labor fields that recruited female employees. The proliferation of department stores benefited women, store owners, and the society.
Women sought out employment in department stores to fill their time and earn an income. When the stores first emerged, women spent many hours shopping in these places to pass time (McBride, 216). The stores were heralded as places of fashion and beauty where women could find the meaning of life through excessive consumption. Later on, some of them became part of the labor force for the department stores. Another reason why women looked for employment in these businesses was to earn an income. Prior to this, many women worked in the domestic capacity where they did not receive monetary compensation. Providing commercial services in department stores allowed women to earn a living.
Female employees enjoyed a range of benefits from working in department stores. They were assured of financial compensation and did not have to provide free labor as was the case for women who worked in family-owned shops. A person was guaranteed of a certain amount of income depending on the duties they performed, including sales, mail order, and advertising (McBride, 218). Additionally, the compensation received higher than that of female employees in other areas of work. A store saleswoman could make up to 400 francs per month, while the average woman seldom exceeded 75 francs per month (McBride, 223). Saleswomen could achieve this high level of income due to commissions. Employees also enjoyed discounts on store purchases, and after working for a long period, they would qualify for pension funds. In general, employment at department stores came with great financial perks.
The high level of income received afforded female employees’ financial freedom. Since they could provide for themselves, they were not forced to rely on men for sustenance. Those who decided to marry were supported by the department stores in which they were employed. Some stores, such as the Louvre, paid maternity leave of up to six weeks. Other businesses paid their female employees for the birth of each child (McBride, 223). This meant that working in department stores did not necessarily mean a woman could not start a family. Instead, it meant that women were allowed the freedom to choose whether or not to marry. Thus, working in department stores was lucrative for young women.
Department store owners also benefitted from seeking and hiring women. First, female employees were considered more submissive than their male counterparts, hence less likely to strike (McBride, 219). Thus, store owners were assured of a relatively stable workforce. Second, female labor was cheaper and more readily available due to the limited opportunities available for women. Third, employers could exercise control over these group of workers. The employer-employee relationship between store owners and female employees was a mix of capitalism and paternalism, where employers could dictate how these women spent their time. The employers could monitor and restrict employee movement while also looking out for company reputation. Due to the benefits employers enjoyed from hiring women, department stores owners began to actively seek out female candidates for employment.
Female employment in department stores had a positive impact on society. It advanced the place of women in society because women no longer had to fully depend on men to provide for them. Additionally, more women joined the workforce since these stores recruited many employees, with Nouvelles Galeries hiring as many as 554 employees (McBride, 217). Besides, department stores led to the proliferation of restaurant chains where employees could eat, especially during free time on Sundays. Thus, the stores contributed to economic growth by providing employment to a large number of people and supporting other businesses. They also adopted paid vacation, sick leave, and healthcare plans for the employees to maintain a positive image (McBride, 224). This was a welcome change from traditional stores that did not provide any of the plans mentioned. These plans enhanced employee productivity and improved working conditions. In general, the rise of department stores positively impacted society.
In conclusion, the growth of department stores between 1870 and 1920 supported women’s employment outside the home. These stores quickly became associated with women because this was their largest demographic of shoppers. Soon, the stores began employing women to enjoy cheap and reliable labor. Female employees benefited in many ways from employment in department stores. They received financial compensation, which was sometimes high enough to support the lifestyle of a single woman in Paris, depending on one’s position. Employment at these stores also promoted women’s empowerment, and female employees did not have to depend on men for survival. More generally, department stores advanced the place of women in society.
We live in a society that is constantly evolving with changes having to be made to accommodate the present time realities. A society is defined as an “enduring and cooperating social group whose members have developed organized patterns of relationships through interaction with one another” (Merriam-Webster dictionary).
Our society is defined by the differences in roles played by the various members who constitute the society. These roles are based on cultural views, traditions and in most cases, these roles are differentiated by gender.
However, these gender roles are not static and they have experienced significant changes in the last few decades. This paper shall set out to articulate the roles that women play in modern day society. These roles shall be viewed under the backdrop of the roles that women played in traditional times so as to demonstrate the differences and similarities in the same. The reasons behind the apparent differences or similarities shall also be provided.
Classifications of Women
The changing of roles for women from the traditional ones can traces its roots to the colonial period. It was in the colonial American era where the traditional role of women was reinvented due to the realities of the new world. Prior to the colonial era, the roles of women were greatly limited by the traditional attitudes of women as the “weaker sex”.
As the “weaker sex”, their roles were restricted to taking care of the bringing up the family and settling household chores. These previously clearly defined roles began to be blurred mostly as a consequence of the labor deficit in colonial America which led to a state where the contribution by the women was most vital for the survival of the family.
The roles of women in today’s society are therefore more diverse and include both traditional and non-traditional roles. Women’s role in today’s society can be classified under 3 broad categories which are: the housewife, the working women and the entrepreneur.
The prevalence of women in each of these 3 categories has changed significantly with there being a shift from the prevalence of women in the housewife role to more women joining the working class. As such, modern society is characterized by a scenario whereby women are increasingly joining institutes of higher learning and joining the work force at higher rates than ever before (Carter, Corra & Carter, 2009).
Roles of Women in Society
There have been significant changes in the roles of women in society over the last few decades. The reasons for these changes have been varied ranging from affirmative action to the economic realities of the time.
The changes have resulted in more equality between the sexes and women are no longer restricted to some roles or stopped from participating in some activities as a result of their sex. Giele (2007) theorizes that the move towards equality which is predominant in modern society is as a result of the realization that equality is a necessary unification force in our highly complex society.
A significant change in the role of women has been the increase in the number of women in the working class category. The women who fall under this category include the married, unmarried and divorced women who can be with children or without women. The reason for the significant increase in the number of working class women has been the greater acceptance of women in the workplace by the society.
However, women are still restricted mostly to the lower levels in organizations and top positions remain dominated by men. Eich-Krohm (2007) suggests that the reason for this is that women are underrepresented in senior-level positions which results in less support for promotion of other women to positions of power.
While participation of women in the job market has increased significantly in the last few decades, women have still continued to play a supportive role to the careers of their husbands.
As such, despite the empowerment that women seem to have obtained in terms of higher employment rates, the husband’s career takes precedence and becomes more important than the wife’s over time (Eich-Krohm, 2007; Hardill, 2002). When choices have to be made that will favor one of the two party’s career over the other, the man’s career is given priority.
This is a fact that is corroborated by Eich-Krohm (2007) who demonstrates that the career of the man takes precedence over that of the woman and in a family setting, the woman may be forced to change locations regardless of her career if the man’s career is at stake. Such moves are because the wife’s role is to support the husband’s career and ensure that he is able to focus on his wife even if at the expense of the wife (Eich-Krohm, 2007).
The role of women in marriage has also experienced significant changes I the last few decades. Traditionally, marriage was not an equal partnership and women were expected to play a complementary role to men who were the symbolic heads and superior powers in the relationship. However, women have in the last few decades become more equal partners in marriage.
This trend has been as a result of changing values which have resulted in people no longer subscribing to the traditional notion of husbands as the breadwinners and women as the home makers. Giele (2007) proposes that the reason for this is the new life experiences for women which have resulted in more education, fewer children and the participation in the paid labor force by women.
This has empowered women to be on an equal footing with men therefore making the role of women in marriage just as significant as that of men. The role of marriage has also been adjusted through the years. Eich-Krohm (2007) notes that whereas in the 1950s and 1950s marriage meant an end to education and any prospective at a career for the woman, this view has significantly changed.
Women have taken up the role of political leadership and are increasingly contesting for public office side by side with male contestants. This is a dramatic shift in affairs since traditionally, politics were restricted to men and women were not expected to aspire to hold public office.
However, all this is changing and a research by Scott Carter, Corra & Carter (2009) demonstrate that there has been the adoption of liberal attitudes with regards to politics by the society in recent times. In the last few decades, women have increasingly participated in politics with numerous successes. Their participation has not been restricted to the local scene but also to the national spheres with women contesting for the congress seats and even the country’s presidency.
The role of women as mothers and home builders has continued to perpetuate itself even in the modern era where women are increasingly taking up office work and political office like their male counterparts.
Eich-Krohm (2007) states that even in a society which champion’s equality between the sexes, women are constantly taking career breaks after childbirth so as to take better care of their children as well as reducing their work hours so as to dedicate more effort to their homes. Women have therefore continued to be the home builders responsible for taking care of the children in the family.
Another role that women have played in the society is as immigrants. Women constitute half of all migrants demonstrating the fact that women play a crucial role in the economies of the countries that they settle.
While migrant women in most cases have little education and therefore provide only low skilled labor, there are instances whereby the women are professionals and serve as expatriates (Eich-Krohm, 2007). Women also accompany their husbands to the host countries and play a supportive role by taking care of the family and ensuring that the children adjust favorably to the new conditions.
Eich-Krohm (2007) reveals that while this supportive role that women play may be disregarded by some as less important, it is of great significance since in cases where a wife feels that the host country is not favorable, she can cause the whole family to relocate back to their country which huge implications on the working ability of the husband. Eich-Krohm (2007) reveals that women migrants face challenges since they lack the social support network of family and friends in the unfamiliar environment that they work in.
Reasons for Adoption of New roles
Some of the roles adopted by women have been as a result of the realities of the time. For example, women in the black community are at times forced to seek employment since they are the sole bread winners in their families. They therefore have to discard of the traditional role of women as housekeepers and fend for themselves and their families.
Women of both the black and white races have also had to join into the workforce so as to supplement the husband’s income and therefore increase the economic power of the family. This scenario has resulted in a significant rise in the number of dual-earner families in the United States. Scott Carter, Corra and Carter (2009) assert that the perceived liberalization and freedoms are born out of necessity than any other single factor.
Race has had a significant impact on the attitude towards the changing roles of women in our society. Scott Carter, Corra and Carter (2009) document that different races hold different attitudes towards the adoption of nontraditional roles by women. These attitudes significantly influence the adoption of some roles by women within the races and with time, by the entire society.
Research by Scott Carter, Corra and Carter (2009) showed that there was general acceptance by Black males of women adopting non traditional roles and participating in the labor force. Such an attitude by one race group can produce differential shifts in attitudes for other social groups as well therefore bringing about change.
Religion has been proposed to play a major part in gender role expectations in a society. A study by Bang et al (2005) demonstrated that religious fundamentalism had a huge bearing on the gender role ideologies that individuals held.
In particular, fundamentalism related with traditional role expectations between the genders and as such, greater religious commitment resulted in more traditional role expectations (Bang et al, 2005). Women who are fundamentalists are therefore more likely to discontinue their work from the moment they have children until the children are grown up so long as the husband plays the role of bread winner in the family.
Reason for Women Reverting Back to Traditional Roles
In the present times, there have been various reasons as to why women have become stay at home mothers. One of the reasons is migrations which sometimes results in women having to quit their jobs or interrupt their careers since their husband’s have received assignments in foreign countries.
Eich-Krohm (2007) notes that in such instances, women may find it unable to find jobs in the host country as a result of the restrictions imposed by the law or lack of relevant skills or competition by the local population. Women may also decide to use the break obtained from migration to have children or carry out home building.
Traditionally, women have been forced to make a choice between having a career or having a family and being a mother. While this may seem to be an occurrence of the past which has changed with society’s acceptance of working class women, there are still communities where women cannot play the role of mother and office worker simultaneously.
In some Western countries such as Germany, the system does not encourage women to work since a woman is obligated to either pursue a career or take up parenting. The lack of child daycare centers and other facilities mean that women are forced to choose between working and taking care of their children.
Without a doubt, the new roles for women have resulted in women becoming more economically successful. This has resulted in some women opting to revert to the traditional role of full-time homemaking. Giele (2007) documents that there is an “opt-out revolution” among successful women who feel that the career successes they have accrued are not worth the sacrifices required of their children.
This phenomenon is confirmed by Eich-Krohm, (2007) who documents that women are inclined to consider their children’s well-being when making career decisions and they may in fact neglect their career development for the sake of their children’s welfare.
Conclusion
This paper set out to illustrate the various roles that women play in the society. This paper has demonstrated that these roles are not static in nature as they keep changing to attune themselves with the realities of the time.
From the discussions presented herein, it is clear that while the roles that women play may vary, no one category of roles that women fulfill can be considered to be better than the others since each role is important and makes a positive contribution to society. Furthermore, there are instances whereby women perform multiple roles such as being a homemaker and maintaining a part-time job to subsidize the family’s expenses.
This paper has also revealed that in as much as women have been empowered and have taken up positions in the workforce, they are still inclined to perform the traditional role of home making and taking care of their children even at the expenses of their careers. From this paper, it is clear that the interaction among the various roles that women play is essential to the success of women and of the society as a whole.
References
Bang, E., Hall, M., Anderson, T., & Willingham, M. (2005). “Ethnicity, Acculturation, and Religiosity as Predictors of Female College Students’ Role Expectations.” Sex Roles, 53(3/4), 231-237. doi:10.1007/s11199-005-5681-7.
Eich-Krohm, A. (2007). “Make It or Break It–Women’s Career Interruptions in the Age of Professional Migration.” International Journal of Sociology, 37(2), 75-93. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.
Giele, J. Z. (2007). “Homemaker or Career Woman: Life Course Factors and Racial Influences among Middle Class Americans.” Journal of Comparative Family Studies 393-409
Scott Carter, J., Corra, M., & Carter, S. (2009). “The Interaction of Race and Gender: Changing Gender-Role Attitudes, 1974–2006”. Social Science Quarterly (Blackwell Publishing Limited), 90(1), 196-211. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00611.x.
The debate on whether some jobs are preserved for men and others for women still rages as critics and adherents alike try to prove their points. Among them is Sophocles, the playwright, who technically pictures a variety of women’s roles. Antigone is one of his masterworks, which precisely manifests most of the Greek myths and culture. The themes brought across by Sophocles bear a close relation to the modern society.
This follows from the way he strategically employs women characters to bring out the themes while delivering his play. The play features two sisters, Antigone and Ismene, who work alongside each other. Their role in the play, and hence the role of women, stand out as the two act in conjunction with another woman character, Eurydice. According to the play, women are the inferior sex as expounded next.
How Are Women Portrayed in Antigone?
Sophocles takes the reader through ancient Greek, a society dominated by men. Like any other society, it distinguishes its people based on gender, where women stand as weak compared to men.
While the society treats men as brave and aggressive, women on the other hand stand in the ‘second hand’ category of people. Such is the picture in Sophocles’ play. Ismene, Antigone’s cute sister, concurs with the notion that women are a low-grade people. This comes out during her argument with Antigone, concerning the burial of their brother Polynices.
Referring to Antigone, she says, “We must remember we are women born, unapt to cope with men; and, being ruled by mightier than ourselves, we have to hear these things and worse” (Sophocles 3). Her words picture women as substandard people. They are unable to perform some duties due to their belief that they are ordained for men. For instance, organizing burials is men’s task in most contemporary societies. Women ought to obey the authority more than their male counterparts do.
As cases of disobedience stand, men appear the most affected. Women on the other hand are too obedient to defy authority. It does not matter much to them whether the laws set are good to all or they interfere with other peoples’ rights. In the play, the king has passed a decree that deprives all the disobedient people of Thebes, a right for proper burials.
Polynices happens to die after having brought an illegal foreign army to Thebes. Though the law interferes with the Christian burial rites, of which Ismene is a partaker of the faith, she obeys the decree despite it being against her religious rights. She is the illustration of women who believe that it is their role to obey at all costs.
Ismene tells Antigone to think of the repercussions of defying Creon’s law. Nick, addressing the reaction of Ismene says, “Ismene can be viewed as being afraid and unease to agree to an action” (26). Ismene in this case plays the role of obedient women. However, exceptions exists as Antigone picture her womanhood.
Antigone depicts the role of strong women, who are capable of making informed decisions. She fits her self into the shoes of men. For instance, Fagles says, “Antigone opposes Creon’s law and buries her slain brother; because in her mind it was immoral not to” (Para. 3). She is an epitome of women who fight against mistreatment from men who view them mediocre. Antigone portrays the courageous role of women, who are ready to fight the law in their endeavour to stand for their rights.
Gender Roles in Antigone by Sophocles: Conclusion
In conclusion, the differing roles of women are still evident today. While some hold on the ancient notion that women are the weak sex, like Ismene, others like Antigone, believe that women are equally powerful as men are, claiming that women can nowadays perform the ancient men-directed tasks even better.
Referring to Antigone and Ismene, Steiner observes that, “While Antigone plays the role of a strong and sensible woman; Ismene portrays the typical meek and mild role” (15). Sophocles, in his captivating chef-d’oeuvre, successfully brings to light these varying roles of women as they stand in the society.
Works Cited
Fagles, Robert. The Three Theban Plays. New York: Penguin, 2006.
Nick, Great. Portrayal of Women in Sophocles’ Antigone. New York: The Davies Group Publishers, 2006. Print.
Sophocles. Antigone. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1912. Print.
Steiner, George. Antigones. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1984. Print.
A woman is opposite sex of a man. Women have been of great importance for many generations. Women play the role of wives and mothers in any society. Some religious principals such as the Christians do believe that a woman was created out of man and was given the mandate of giving companionship to the man.
This principal has some truth in the fact that in our society we see women giving companionship to men by being their wives. Apart from this, the woman is the one who gives new life. She posses a womb that a man does not posses. The womb was specifically created for the development of the baby. After this, she gives birth and becomes the mother to the baby.
Women are more responsible when it comes to matters related to the family; they have to ensure that every thing is running smoothly as expected. Not only are women concentrated on matters of the family but in today’s generation, they are also a key player of the economy in different ways.
In the past, the woman was seen as an inferior person who was only expected to remain at home, do the household chores, and take care of the babies. The man was the one to go to work and provide the daily bread for the family, which made men mistreat their wives because women had no power to raise their views or opinions but rather they had to submit to their husbands’ orders. Nevertheless, in today’s world, women go to work and earn money that they join with that of the husband to keep up the family.
In addition, the small girls were also gender biased in the fact that they were expectected to remain at home and help their mothers in the house chores while the boys went to school to get education. This left the female child with no option but to remain uncivilized in her entire life. However, in today’s generation, the female child goes to school and acquires the same education as the male child.
It is considered unethical if the parents of the female child fail to take the female child to school and in some countries it is punishable by law. This has led the female child to develop into a very civilized woman that is well updated with the current matters that surround her.
Today it is not a shock to see a woman driving good cars, building modern houses because they have become capable to do so. They benefit the economy of a particular country as stated earlier in the fact that they become tax payers which adds a certain percentage of revenue to that particular country.
They are also helping to solve the problem of unemployment because they are day by day becoming more innovative and establishing new businesses and companies that create job opportunities. This stance is really helping the respective state and that is why the government of a particular country is protecting the rights of the women in their countries.
The woman of today has been given the freedom to exercise their views and opinions concerning political matters. They can even try themselves for any parliamentary seat as long as they meet the legal requirements as stipulated by the constitution of that particular country.
This has really contributed to the development of countries because men in power are aware of the present competition and criticism if they fail to deliver their mandate effectively. Women are also becoming key players in technological advancement all over the world, they possess innovative minds, they are developing machines and other related gadgets to reduce the manual work of human labor and increase the use of machines. This creates employment to the people that will be handling the machines.
Women are also human beings that are identified by beauty. it is said that a woman can take 50 percent of her time to look appealing. If a woman does not look beautiful, she faces discrimination in the society. This makes the women all over the world place their beauty as a priority and not as an option.
Every man in the world desires to marry a woman that is envied by the society, therefore, the woman who does not maintain her beauty is at the risk of being left unmarried. It is important that all women should ensure that they maintain their inward and outward beauty if they have to be considered as beautiful and responsible in the society.
Being a woman also has its disadvantages in various ways such as in the birth stage. Some women hate when they are pregnant so they try to avoid this stage and prefer an operation, which is costly and dangerous. Women also are disadvantaged when they are undergoing menstrual cycle because it is accompanied by some specific features.
Another disadvantage that the majority of women hate is the issue of being submissive to their husbands. Although they may prefer to remain independent, they have no option but to get married because they need a man to bear and have a child. Even if they decide to get a child out of marriage that will affect their child or children lacking a father being part and parcel of normal upbringing.
Being a woman is full of responsibilities because they did not elope from household chores even though they live in a civilized society. In fact, their responsibilities have increased because they have to perform their household chores as they still have to perform their household responsibilities. They also have to leave some spare time for spending with their families. That is why a research that has been conducted demonstrates women as people who can multi task unlike men who can only do one thing at a time.
From the above essay, it is evident that women are creatures of great significant in our society today. They should not be prejudiced by anyone in the society. Women are continuing to establish roots and fight for their rights by developing their organizations that do fight for their rights. It is my hope that each woman in the world will embrace the traits discussed in the above essay to ensure that they truly know the value of being a woman.
In traditional Jewish culture, men and women have roles that differ. However, males and females are equal in Jewish culture. Nevertheless, many individuals have misunderstood and misinterpreted the role of Jew women.
The place of traditional Jew women is not as low as most modern people assume. In fact, the position of Jew women in the Biblical time is better than the position of modern American women. In traditional Jewish culture, women are viewed as separate but equal.
The roles that they perform differ from those that men perform (Greenberg 75). Nevertheless, the roles they perform are no less important. In fact, some of the traditional roles of Jew women are vital in the society.
While many people despise traditional Jew women, they perform essential roles in the society, which broadly include familial, business and advisory roles.
Many people respect and despise traditional Jew women. On Sabbath days, Jewish husbands praise their wives with songs. However, the wives are not allowed to sing Sabbath songs. Additionally, they cannot perform time-bound mitzvoth.
Their child bearing and household chores exempt them from time-bound commandments (Greenberg 75). Thus, traditional Jew women are disenfranchised from Jewish shared prayers and education. At least ten Jews must meet to conduct shared prayers and education.
Their attendance to day-by-day prayer services do not add up towards minyan, the required number to conduct shared prayers. On the other hand, it is expected that they nurture and care for future Jews. Hence, most of roles of traditional Jew women relate to the family.
Traditional Jew women have to ensure that their homes are kept well. The women have to ensure the domestic environment is appropriate for the family. The homes have to be clean and neat. Additionally, they have to ensure that Jewish law is kept in the familial environment.
The women are responsible for maintenance of kosher homes. They must ensure that they light candles to welcome Jewish festivals and Sabbath. Moreover, they must ensure the house is appropriate for festivals like the Passover.
Finally, they must follow the required dietary guidelines (Labovitz 9). Consequently, the home is the key focus of a Jewish woman.
The other role of traditional Jew women is to perform business activities. According to Jewish teachings, women have an elevated level of Binah compared to men. Binah refers to intuition, intelligence and understanding.
Rabbis based this argument on the fact that women are built and not formed (Carroll and Stephen 3). Therefore, women can excel in business. Traditional Jew women could buy and sell goods and own property. Furthermore, they could make contracts.
Women in many modern societies, including America, could not perform these roles until a century ago. The Bible also recognizes the business acumen of women (Carroll and Stephen 750).
Their greater intuition is what makes some scholars argue that Rachel, Sarah and Rebecca are superior to Jacob, Isaac and Abraham in prophesy. The foundation for this argument is that men took part in Golden Calf idolatry while women avoided the idol.
Finally, greater understanding and intelligence of women explains the emergence of distinguished Jew women who are scholars.
Traditional Jew women were teachers, and others became rabbis. However, they had limited opportunities to participate in the synagogues. The Torah did not provide them with any definite responsibility in official religious services.
Therefore, in most cases, the women provided advice to their husbands. The Old Testament, Torah, depict women as knowledgeable and wise. They have the ability to educate and motivate their husbands and families about religious issues (Baskin 656).
Many rabbis worldwide consult their wives on matters that concern Jewish laws. In most cases, they consult their wives on what Jewish Law states about the role of a woman.
The title rebbetzin provides some idea of the worth of a rabbi’s spouse in Jewish society. Finally, several Jew women have occupied respected positions. Miriam assisted Moses and Aaron to liberate Israelites while Deborah was a judge.
The conventional function of Jew women in the social order is strong and vastly appreciated. The early chapters of the Old Testament play a critical role in the assumptions people make on the traditional roles of women.
However, it is evident in this paper that traditional Jew women played a vital role in the society. They ensured their homes were well kept, taught their children and performed business. In addition, they advised their husbands, and some became leaders in the society.
However, the key responsibility of a traditional Jew woman is to be a spouse. Additionally, she is to tend to the family unit and be mother.
Finally, the exemption of Jew women from mitzvah has made many people misunderstand the role that they play. The exemption is not prevention. In contrast, they can observe the mitzvah if they like.
Secondly, even though the exemption limits their participation in the synagogues, traditional Jew women have religious lives.
The fallacy that Jew women do not have devout lives rises from the belief that Jewish holy activities gyrate about the synagogues. However, Jewish religious activities gyrate about the home, a place in which the woman’s function is as crucial as the man’s role.
Works Cited
Baskin, Judith R. The Cambridge Dictionary of Jewish History, Religion, and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Print.
Carroll, Robert P, and Stephen Prickett. The Bible: Authorized King James Version. Oxford: Oxford university press, 2008. Print.
Greenberg, Cheryl. “Textbook Treatments of the Roles of Ritual and Women in Judaism.” Jewish Social Studies 46.1 (1984): 73-82. Print.
Labovitz, Gail. “The Scholarly Life–The Laboring Wife: Gender, Torah and the Family Economy in Rabbinic Culture.” Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender Issues 13.1 (2007): 8-48. Print.
The Hebrew Bible is one of the main religious which helps to understand and analyze the role of women in ancient society. The Hebrew Bible reflects some of the most fundamental laws and portrays the status of women in society. It stipulates three main areas marriage, divorce, and inheritance. The main primary source which helps to develop the topic is the Hebrew Bible. This source will be used to support the ideas and cite examples. The main secondary sources will be Women in the Hebrew Bible by A. Bach, Women in Scripture by C. Meyers and T. Craven. Frymer-Kensky, T. and Reading the Women of the Bible: by A. Schocken. Thesis Through marriage laws and ceremonies the Hebrew Bible emphasizes secondary status of women in family and ancient society.
Main text
The Hebrew Bible mentions a lot of women but a special attention is given to four women: Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel. Also, it includes queens, women prophets and judges and, as the most important two women heroes: Ruth and Esther. In general, The Hebrew Bible received a masculine structure as only men were nearly exclusively in contact with God; they elaborated the dogmas, organized and presided over the Christian community. For instance, “Hannah’s status as primary wife and her barrenness recall Sarah and Rebekah, and an implicit comparison with these earlier women underlies the entire narrative” (Meyers and Craven 90).
Women were given a marginal place. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did not turn out to be, in the same way, the God of Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel. The hierarchy, God, man, woman, brought about a legislation of masculine privileges in The Hebrew Bible (divorce law and marriage law).
The role and values of family allow understanding the position of women and their social roles. The Hebrew Bible portrays that women’s status was reflected in the marriage. A woman was obliged to follow a man to his tribe and to bear children who were considered to be of his blood. Strong emphasis was placed on the chastity and potential fidelity of the woman. The examples of Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel show that their family strictly limited their behavior in order to ensure their reputation and consequently the family’s honor (Frymer-Kensky 186).
Since a woman would eventually leave the family, her value consisted primarily in the payment her family received at her marriage sale. In addition, any possibility of her right to inheritance from her family, especially inheritance of fixed property such as land, which would in effect be transferring family wealth to another tribe, was out of the question. And, the married woman’s status in her new family was not improved (Olsen 82). As a wife she became subject to her husband and his kindred and dependent upon them for maintenance and support. According to Buch, “The reference to Rachel’s beauty occurs in the context of Jacob’s request for her hand in marriage, and serves to explain his preference for her over her sister, rather than to introduce her as an autonomous character (47).
The marriage produced a situation in which a woman was subjugated by males, her father, brother or close male relatives when she was a virgin and her husband when she became a wife. As a matter of custom, she came to be regarded as little more than a piece of property. According to Frymer-Kensky (2004) low status of women in society is reflected in condemnations. A woman had no voice in her marriage. Originally the Hebrew monarchy was an attempt also to maintain the old tradition in a centralized state (Miller 43). Israel loved to think of David as the shepherd lad who, through sheer personal ability, had raised himself first to high military rank and then to the throne itself.
To a late period in his reign he maintained that respect for human rights that nomad Israel had so valued. The story of his great sin with Bathsheba is one of the most significant in the Old Testament (Frymer-Kensky 185). the most important is that The Hebrew Bible mentions that a husband should listen to his wife: “An allegorical interpretation of Sarah as virtue allows him to speak of how it is that husbands like Abraham should listen to their wives” (Schering et al 133).
It is possible to say that women are depicted as passive and subdued. The passivity of woman in this interpretation deprives her of feminine sacred power. Her human power and dignity are negated. Rather than being impossible without woman, the saving act becomes impossible without a male deity who mercifully lowers himself to the human condition. The Bible shifted the basis of the social foundation-from blood kinship to fellowship in a community of believers, from loyalty to the tribe to that of the extended family as its basic unit. For instance, “Verse 24 explains the change of tribal identity connected with marriage.” 2.
Verse 24 explains marriage as an institution (whether patriarchal/patrilocal or matriarchal /matrilocal is debated)” (Schearing et al 30). A strong family meant recognition not only of male rights but of female rights as well. This realization can be seen in family law in the areas of marriage, divorce and inheritance. Following Bach: “Male control of female reproductive powers in conjunction with patrilocal monogamous marriage (for the wife) secures the wife as her husband ‘s exclusive property and ensures the continuity of his name” (134).
The Hebrew Bible considers marriage, which is an important safeguard for chastity, to be incumbent on every man and woman unless they are physically or financially unable to lead conjugal life. Through marriage, the woman engages in an activity that is life-affirming rather than life-denying. Marriage is central to the growth and stability of the basic unit of society (Miller 65).
The Hebrew Bible mentions two women heroes who play an important role in understanding and evaluation of the role of women in society. The book of Ruth have two main themes: redemption and hesed. The main problem is that Ruth was strong enough to marry her to a brother-in-law, Boaz. “Looking at Ruth, a structuralist might focus on the widely noted cross-cultural problem of endogamy (marriage within the group) versus exogamy (marriage with someone from outside the group).” (Bach 219).
Critics admit that it is probable that in early times levirate marriage was not limited to a brother-in-law, that it neither required nor excluded full marriage, and that it neither required nor excluded the unmarried condition of the levirate partner. The Bible states:
And Ruth said: ‘Entreat me not to leave thee, and to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God” (the Hebrew Bible Ruth 15).
The Jews of the besieged tribe sent someone to negotiate peace, but Muhammad would not accept unless they left all their property behind and moved out. Each family or household was permitted to take along only a camel-load of their necessities excluding silver or gold wares (Miller 93).
The Book of Esther raised women’s status and equality, represented some of the most radical departures from law. The Book of Esther is an historical novel used to account for the Jewish Festival of Purim. It has had, through the centuries, extraordinary popularity amongst the Jews, especially during times of bitter persecution. The story itself is without historical foundation, but the local color is correct enough. The figure of Esther shows that the Bible granted every wife the right to support or maintenance. The story tells:
And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine: ‘Whatever thy petition, queen Esther, it shall be granted thee; and whatever thy request, even to the half of the kingdom, it shall be performed.’ Then Esther the queen answered and said: ‘If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request” (the Hebrew Bible Esther 2).
However, the opinion caused great inequity since the husband’s responsibility for maintenance only specified present maintenance, and not past-due maintenance that he had not provided, unless a distinct agreement concerning this was previously made. Thus, even in the most extreme cases of non-support, a wife lacked the right to sue for divorce. “A woman who divorces, or takes a lover, is often assumed to be public property” (Bach 328).
Before marriage, the woman was a property of her father. The contract of marriage considerably raised the status of a woman in society by making her a party to the marriage agreement rather than an object for sale. Thus, following Schearing et al (1999): “Genesis i, however, is neither for nor against women’s equality” (17). Since it was customary in an agrarian society to marry at an early age, the allowance of marriage at puberty was appropriate to the social situation. ”In ancient Israel, the function of marriage was to guarantee legitimate offspring for a lineage and to consolidate or maintain the wider social structure” (Meyers and Craven 48). Great emphasis was placed on the value of many children which a young wife with many child-bearing years ahead could more easily provide (Frymer-Kensky 186).
The Hebrew Bible pays a special attention to the concept of the fertilized virgin. Critics admit that if viewed as mythological, may also constitute an early, patriarchal, Christian effort to delimit the powerful independence associated with goddess traditions of “pagan” neighbors and the virginity of the goddess. Bach states: “Her father had the option to refuse her to him, in which case the seducer must pay a frill Virgin ‘s brideprice” (296).
Thus, a woman’s role has traditionally been an elevated one, it has also functioned as the proverbial pedestal on which woman is idealized in compensation for the oppression of real women. A distinguishing feature of law is the power that it bestows upon the father or grandfather who can contract a valid marriage for minors which cannot be annulled at puberty. The inability of minors to repudiate the marriage seems to rest on the jurists’ assumption that fathers and grandfathers who are fond of their offspring would not have sinister motives in arranging their marriages (Frymer-Kensky 186). If the marriage was contracted negligently or fraudulently, or by someone other than the father or grandfather, it can be repudiated by the minor when he or she attains puberty (Olsen 92).
A somewhat less important doctrine regarding marriage is the rule of equality which states that a marriage is a suitable union in law if the man is equal in social status to the woman. However, this obligation does not apply to the woman, since she is considered to be raised to the husband’s position by marriage. In law, equality is a necessary condition determined by
family,
religion,
profession,
freedom,
good character, and
means: A marriage that does not favorably meet these criteria is not necessarily void (Frymer-Kensky 186).
The judge must carefully exercise his discretion in determining whether to annul the marriage on the basis that it was a mésalliance. “Religiously neither civil marriage nor civil divorce can be recognized, unless supplemented by marriage or divorce according to religious forms” (Schearing et al 403).
Maintenance, another important obligation of the husband, includes food, clothing, and lodging. Maintenance is the husband’s primary obligation, regardless of his wife’s private means. Through the characters of Sarah, Rebecah, Leah and Rachel, the Hebrew Bible portrays that the wife has first preference for maintenance over her children. “Commentators often have discussed God’s intentions for gender relations in light of the relationship between Sarah and Abraham.
Particularly important have been the descriptions of God telling Abraham to “do whatever Sarah says to you”” (Schearing et al 135). The husband’s obligation begins when his wife reaches puberty and continues unless she refuses him conjugal rights or is otherwise disobedient since, in return for her maintenance, the wife owes the husband her faithfulness and obedience (Frymer-Kensky 334). However, if her behavior is caused by non-payment or the necessity of leaving her husband’s house because of his cruelty, maintenance must still be paid.
“The Hebrew women were also subject to much hardship through polygamy, and the right of divorce, which belonged to their husband. It is, however, in heathen and savage countries that the rule of man over the ” (Schearing et al 328). A wife is also entitled to maintenance following a divorce, and if she ceases to menstruate before the completion of this period, the wife is entitled to maintenance.
The Hebrew Bible mentions free women living outside marriage. “In the family, women are not normally free to operate for extended periods outside this sphere. The well-known exceptions are the widow, the prostitute, and the hierodule” (Bach 10). However, a widow does not receive maintenance following her husband’s death since maintenance is considered to be inconsistent with her position as an heir (Frymer-Kensky 254). If the husband refuses to pay maintenance, the wife has the right to sue for it. Also, “women’s cultic service seems to have been confined largely to maintenance and support roles, essential to the operation of the cultus but not requiring clergy status-or prescription in texts concerned with ” (Bach 10).
Summary
In sum, The Hebrew Bible gives much information about the role of women in society and their rights. We perceive women and their importance through marriage and relations with men. The picture of a common woman like Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel is structured and traditional. The Hebrew Bible stipulates that the wife’s main obligation involves maintaining a home, caring for her children, and obeying her husband. He is entitled to exercise his marital authority by restraining his wife’s movements and preventing her from showing herself in public. This restriction of the wife mirrors the prevailing medieval social customs of veiling and seclusion of women, practiced in order to protect their honor.
Works Cited
Bach, A. Women in the Hebrew Bible. Routledge; 1 edition, 1999.
Gross, C. Feminism and Religion Beacon Press; 2 edition, 1996.
Frymer-Kensky, T. Reading the Women of the Bible: A New Interpretation of Their Stories. Schocken, 2004.
The Hebrew Bible. 2007. Web.
Meyers, C., Craven, T. Women in Scripture. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001.
Miller, F. A. Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling Women Baker Books; Spiral edition, 2002.
Olsen, C. Book of the Goddess. New York, 1989.
Schearing, L.S., Ziegler, V.H., Kvam, K.F. Eve & Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender. Indiana University Press, 1999.
Conventional wisdom has presented the Enlightenment Period as a watershed in artistic and intellectual development, marking the beginnings οf the ‘modern,’ in terms οf cultural views and practices. For women, particularly, this period was even more liberating than to men. Great advances were made in art and literature for women, and finally after years οf oppression, the female voice was to be heard. Did women have a Renaissance?
Literature reflects not only the author’s thoughts, but also the society in which the author lived. A close study οf the lives οf women in literature οf the pre-modern world shows they suffered from increasingly repressive social constraints. In early societies, women bore children, cared for the home and helped maintain the family’s economic production. Men hunted, made war, assumed primary responsibility for the family’s economic welfare.
The patriarch figure Orgon in Tartuffe is a good example οf how the Father οf the house has absolute power and is a basic belief οf the Enlightenment Era. Male dominance was important from the time οf the earliest written historical records, probably as a result οf men’s discovery οf their role in hunting and warfare as activities necessary for existence. The belief that women were naturally weaker and inferior to men was also certified by god-centered religions. In the Bible, God placed Eve under Adam’s authority, and Paul urged women to be submissive to their husbands. In Hinduism, the reward οf a proper woman is rebirth as a man, ancient Chinese women were considered to be the property οf their fathers or husbands and in Japan, women were dressing in men’s clothing in order to obtain the same benefits as men (Reece).
In most traditional societies, women generally were at a disadvantage. Their education was limited to learning domestic skills, and they had no access to positions οf power. The Enlightenment, with its egalitarian political importance, provided a favorable climate for the rise οf feminism in the 17th and 18th centuries, and many extraordinary women from all walks οf life found ways to exercise their powers and leave records οf their brilliance.
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz is best known as a major Baroque literary figure οf Mexico. However, her insatiable desire to understand everything around her, combined with her reading οf classical philosophy with her advocation οf the educational rights οf women mark her as a philosopher as well. Juana grew up knowing full well the educational restraints put on girls in Mexico schools, having to educate herself in her Grandfather’s library. She passionately pleas for the opportunities for girls to be educated as equally as boys in her letter, Reply to Sor Filotea de la Cruz.
Oh, how much harm would be avoided in our country if older women were as learned as Leta and knew how to instruct in the way Saint Paul and my Father, Saint Jerome. And failing this, and because οf the considerable idleness to which our poor women have been relegated, if a father desires to provide his daughters with more than ordinary learning, he is forced by necessity, and by the absence οf wise elder women, to bring men to teach the skills οf reading, writing, counting, the playing οf musical instruments, and other accomplishments, from which no little harm results, as is experienced every day in doleful examples οf perilous association, because through the immediacy οf contact and the intimacy born from the passage οf time, what one may never have thought possible is easily accomplished (de la Cruz 423).
Juana uses historical and biblical references, inferences to Saints and concise logic to powerfully support her position. Her style οf writing leaves the reader with the belief that this is a woman made to think. This remarkable woman who complained οf a lack οf education, accumulated a library with four thousand books and she lead the dramatic and musical education οf the girls who studied at the convent, composing plays and music for them to perform. She reigned over a salon in Mexico City, frequented by the intellectual and political elite οf her era. She also gave counsel to her sister nuns, and adjudicated disputes. In the same decade that Sor Juana was hotly defending a woman’s right to an education and intellectual prowess in Reply to Sor Filotea de la Cruz in Mexico, England’s Mary Astell wrote her argument for the education οf women.
After a full-scale civil war and the beheading οf Charles I, an egalitarian ideology allowed for thoughts οf more revolutionary ideas. The Restoration Period spawned intellectual projects for women. Mary Astell laid out the plan for education women in A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, her first published work which catapulted her to fame as a woman’s advocated in her day. Astell’s Serious Proposal appears in 1694, at a time when the misogynists were still active and when the market in profeminine conduct books had been thriving.
This pamphlet proposes the founding οf an academy οf religious retreat for ladies only, where women could improve their minds through philosophical self-reflection. Astell believes that women would be better off sequestered for their learning to separate from the lewd male world that trivializes them. Astell repeatedly opposes the claim that women are naturally ignorant. “‘To believe this claim,’ she states at one point, ‘is to argue lack the souls which would allow them to develop intellectual agility; and to deny women souls,’ she concludes, ‘wou’d be as unphilosophical as it is unmannerly’” (Deluna 236-237).
Astell models her pamphlet to the day’s conduct-book conventions in order to engage a female audience, which has been exposed to and influenced by such literature. After her Serious Proposal is rejected for seeming to be “too Catholic” by English readers, Astell goes on to write Some Reflections Upon Marriage. She argues, much as Sor Juana does, for the scriptural support οf women’s education.
Another female reformer who sought educational refuge οf the church was Mary Ward. Ward lived an exciting life, sometimes even dangerous, being hunted by the English government in London as a Catholic subversive and also imprisoned in Germany by the Catholic Church itself. She was in ill-health most οf her life, yet still had incredible strength to fight for her cause οf educating women. Ward and her aides would hold open house to recruit new students for their school, right under the noses οf the English government who found their activities, “subversive” (Fraser 16). Mary Ward opened convents and schools as far apart as Liege and Colonge, Vienna and Prague, Rome and Naples. Above all education, and the need for education in women if they were to perform God’s work, aroused Ward’s dedication.
Aphra Behn became one οf the first female writers who actually made a living as a writer. After the passing οf her husband, she became a playwright in order to make money. She used the stage as a vehicle for advertising women’s gifts. She used her dramas to break down the conventions that deprived women οf their rights in the late 17th century.
In the literary marketplace, more and more women were beginning to make their way as professional writers; one οf these women was Mary Wollestonecraft. Wollestonecraft ran a school for girls, and in order to obtain more teaching materials, she gathered anthologies to teach language and morals to young girls. Later, she became a professional writer in London, where she authored eleven works, one being a political vindication οf human rights, A Vindication οf the Rights οf Women.
Wollestonecraft explains the ways in which denying serious education to women hurts both sexes and undermines society, arguing that gaining the right for women to be educated would make women be fit companions for men and have a chance to become equally accomplished intellectually. Though she makes her case for women’s rights passionately, Wollestonecraft nevertheless provides a clear analysis οf the problems facing women at that period in history, refuting such traditional views as those οf John Milton, who held that women were designed to manifest their attractions in order to gratify the senses οf men while docilely obeying them.
She states that the women’s minds are not in a “healthy state: for, like the flowers which are planted in too rich a soil, strength and usefulness are sacrificed to beauty; and the flaunting leaves, after having pleased a fastidious eye, fade, disregarded on the stalk, long before the season when they ought to have arrived at maturity” (Wollstonecraft introduction 1) Wollstonecraft’s straight forward approach appeals directly to women, treating them as rational creatures, rather than a child, asking them to acquire strength both οf mind and body and abolish the conceived feminine traits encouraged by men.
Works Cited
Aphra Behn, (1640-1689).” Sunshine For Women. 2001. Web.
De La Cruz, Sor Juana Ines. “Reply to Sor Filotea De La Cruz.” The Norton Anthology οf World Literature. 2nd Ed. Ed. Sarah Lawall. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2002. 403-430.
The novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe unveils many important themes such as slavery and segregation, racial inequalities and Christian values. The social context of the novel reflects the system of slavery and its impact on personal relations and motherhood. Through female characters, Stowe argues that racial problems have deep historical roots that are closely connected with the period of slavery and dominance of “whites” and the low position of women in society and their social inequalities. Thesis Stowe portrays idealized women characters but diminishes the role of white men.
Stowe idealizes women characters portraying them as ideal wives and mothers. Stowe depicts idealized women including Ophelia, Eliza, Aunt Chloe and Rosa. The women’s role was to run the house and house slaves. Stowe depicts Marie as a strict personal in contrast to her sister Ophelia. “Miss Ophelia was the absolute bond-slave of the “ought.” Once make her certain that the “path of duty,” as she commonly phrased it, lay in any given direction, and fire and water could not keep her from it” (Stowe 174). The realization that a woman, like Marie, has to devote herself to husband and live according to the values was typical for all female characters.
Even if women want to be equal to men they would never talk about this with their husband. Stowe idealizes family relations depicting that a wife can openly express her life position to her husband like Mrs. Shelby. Their life was limited by running the house and bringing up children. For instance, when Mr. Shelby decided to sell the slaves his wife was opposed this act appealing to his virtues: “It is a sin to hold a slave under laws like ours, – I always felt it was, – I always thought so when I was a girl, – I thought so still more after I joined the church; but I thought I could gild it over, – I thought, by kindness, and care, and instruction, I could make the condition of mine better than freedom – fool that I was!” (Stowe 38). For instance, Emmeline in spite of all her life troubles remains a pious and devoted girl.
Male characters Arthur Shelby, George Shelby, and Augustine St. Clare are portrayed as oppressors and a dominant class in contrast to women. Men perpetrate an ideological prison that subjected and silenced women. This ideology oppressed women by saying they should be subdued by religion and social norms. The character of Uncle Tom stays apart from other male characters: he is depicted as a man who possesses female qualities such as passion, sympathy and deep feelings. Stowe portrays Tom’s deep personal feelings, striving of personal identity and total ignorance of the world experienced by a slave.
Tom is an uncommon fellow; he is certainly worth that sum anywhere,–steady, honest, capable, manages my whole farm like a clock” (Stowe 6). Social priorities were supported by economic development which always played a major role considered as the main indicator of future success or failure. It is possible to say that slavery lasted so long, because it was legitimatized by the church which played a crucial role for 19th century men. Stowe depicts that intense physical activity of slaves engaged in absorptive labor into a kind of consumptive fever. Simon Legree describes that treatment of slaves, “Use up, and buy more,’s my way…” (Stowe 183). Simon Legree represents a proslavery position opposed to Ophelia’s. At the end of the novel, Stowe depicts that Legree descends into alcoholism and insanity.
Christianity and church was a strong force which dictated social norms and social order. For instance, Eva is depicted as a devoted parishioner who follows all values and commandments. The other example is the character of Mrs. Shelby who allows her favourite slave girl Eliza to have a Christian wedding in their house. Probably, Harriet Beecher Stowe includes this episode because for every devoted Christians a wedding is the most important thing in his life like Eucharist. The other idealized characteristic is given to Eliza who “was safe under the protecting care of her mistress, and had reached maturity without those temptations which make beauty so fatal an inheritance to a slave” (Stowe 16). In reality, such situation is occurred very rare during the period portrayed in the novel.
Probably, religion and Christianity, was the best way for slave owners to defense slavery. On the one hand, it was supposed that everything (human existence) is predetermined by God, and a mortal man is unable to change his destiny. Although church has worked hard to distinguish religious values of slaves and masters and their respective on peoples. Christianity was the “law of life” for defenders. The distance between these women groups and a largely secular but still vaguely society is such that the preservation of the former from the evils of the latter has been achieved by the erection of considerable social barriers. The religious mores of the women that provide almost all of them were such that traditional practice isolates slaves from the wider society. When religion starts to dominate and tyrannize people acting in its own interests it looses its original destination as the keeper of customs and morality. Attitudes to racial roles tended to keep those women who remained in slavery separated from the wider society. Stowe portrays Ophelia as the “absolute bondslave” of her personal moral code (Stowe 230). Despite Ophelia’s obedience, Stowe argues with Ophelia’s deportment to slave laboring under the whip.
In sum, Stowe portrays idealized women characters obsessed by religion and domesticity. She underlines that religion determines everything in women’s lives, in spite of the fact that church and Christianity were used to defense and legitimatize the institution of slavery. Men are portrayed as indifferent and cruel towards women. Stowe idealizes womanhood avoiding such things as oppression and low educational level, low social status of women and their domestic role only. She tries to create a woman who is equal to men in her thoughts if not actions. Stowe also depicts that women’s life and destiny are defined and depended upon the men, and, particularly, upon their marriage. Domesticity shapes lives of women including white slave owners and black slaves. The domesticity portrays resistance to patriarchy and obedience of women. This novel unveils social mores and values of women and society in which they played a crucial role. It means that the social values were influenced through the impact of class relations on society. In this way class power affected the thoughts and desires of its victims without them being aware of it.
People, who travel to India, are aware of the fact that women’s socio-political status in this country ranges to a significant degree. On one hand, there are many women of high social standing, who were able to become politicians, on the other – the women who belong to the India’s lowest cast “Shudras”, are not even considered as being fully human, with the most essential civil rights being denied to them. Therefore, we cannot really be discussing women’s role in today’s Indian society within a cultural or religious context alone. Apparently, there are deep-seated notions, in regards to women in India, which prompt men to treat them so differently. In order for us to understand what defines gender dynamics in Indian society, we will have refer to the ancient epic of “The Mahabharata”, as such that provides us with the insight on the very essence of such dynamics. It is a commonly assumed fact that Indian society is one of the most conservative societies in the world, which is why the popular attitudes towards women, found in this epic, actually do correspond to today’s reality as well. This paper is aimed at exploring women’s roles in the classical world of “The Mahabharata” as such that correspond to ancient Indian’s understanding of the concept of eugenics.
Mahabharata
When we begin to read “The Mahabharata”, it cannot escape our attention that there are many parallels can be drawn between how women were being treated in India two thousands of years ago and today. There can be no doubt as to the fact that, at the time “The Mahabharata” was being composed, the majority of women in India were being oppressed, socially and domestically. For example, the epic suggests that woman’s willingness to subject herself fully to its husband constitutes her foremost virtue. There are numerous examples, throughout “The Mahabharata”, of various kings and princes giving women lectures as to how they are supposed to behave. Women are being expected to provide men with a healthy offspring as their primary duty, without regard to whether woman was in the marital relationship or not. In Book V of “The Mahabharata”, King Aswapati impregnates his female servant, because he is convinced that she will give a birth to beautiful and healthy children, whom he intends to adopt, without giving much of a thought about servant’s consequential fate:
“Ask thy boon, king Aswapati, from creation’s Ancient Sire,
True to virtue’s sacred mandate speak thy inmost heart’s desire.”
For an offspring brave and kingly, so the saintly king replied,
Holy rites and sacrifices and this penance I have tried,
If these rites and sacrifices move thy favor and thy grace,
Grant me offspring, worthy of my noble race” (The Mahabharata, Book V, Romesh C. Dutt)
This excerpt helps us to understand better why some women in this ancient epic are being looked down upon, while others are being elevated to the status of goddesses. Apparently, in Vedic period, as it is the case in modern India, the ultimate women’s worth corresponded to her ability to give birth to racially untainted children. Indian society has traditionally being divided on castes, with people unable to move from one caste to another. Indians who belong to higher castes, like Brahmans or Khatrees, have much lighter skin and their anthropological type reminds us of European one, while Indians that are being affected by racial mixing to a significantly further degree, belong to lower castes. This has to do with the fact that, after invading Indian subcontinent, about five thousand years ago,
Aryan tribes established laws of racial segregation, which are being observed by majority of Indians even today. Therefore, ancient Indians used to form their attitude towards women according to their understanding of the link between women’s biological role and the well-being of society, as whole. In “The Mahabharata”, there are also many examples can be found of women enjoying intellectual freedom, just as their male counterparts. For example, in her dialogue with King Janaka, his wife Sulabha, proves herself as being capable of matching wits with him, as she relies on her sense logic, while arguing with Janaka that women should not be oppressed by men: “The words I shall utter will be fraught with sense, free from ambiguity (in consequence of each of them not being symbols of many, logical, free from pleonasm or tautology, smooth, certain, free from bombast, agreeable or sweet, truthful, inconsistent with the aggregate of three, refined, not elliptical or imperfect, destitute of harshness or difficulty of comprehension, characterized by due order, not far fetched in respect of sense” (The Mahabharata, Part 6, Santi Parva, Sri Kisari Mohan Ganguli). At the end, he agrees with her and accepts her point of view as his own. However, it is the fact that Sulabha belonged to one of the highest castes in Indian social hierarchy, which allowed her to refer to her husband as equal. If Sulabha happened to belong to the lower caste, Janaka would not be willing to discuss anything with her, not to say marrying her.
As we have mentioned earlier, in “The Mahabharata”, the passages that worship women, often mingle with the ones that promote male chauvinism. Apart from the fact that we can think of it, as the proof that analyzed epic is the product of collective authorship, it also shows that it is quite inappropriate discussing the roles of women in “The Mahabharata” in general. For example, after we read the following passage: “The teacher who teaches true knowledge is more important than ten instructors. The father is more important than ten such teachers of true knowledge and the mother is more important than ten such fathers. There is no greater guru than mother.” (The Mahabharata, Part 10, Shanti parva, Sri Kisari Mohan Ganguli), it might seem to us that “The Mahabharata” actually promotes the concept of matriarchate. However, there are also many places in the epic where women are being referred to as having absolutely no value, outside of marital relationship: “Women serve no
purpose when their husbands are dead. She who liveth after her husband is dead, draggeth on a miserable existence that can hardly be called life. O bull of the Kshatriya order, death is a blessing to women without husbands” (The Mahabharata, Part 7, Sambhava Parva, Sri Kisari Mohan Ganguli). At the same time, wife’s death is not being considered by husband as the end of the world. In “The Mahabharata”, there are many instances can be found of men marrying other women in the matter of weeks, after the death of their previous wives. In fact, this kind of behavior is being encouraged by Vedic tradition. However, we cannot refer to it as the proof that the reason why male existential superiority was being institutionalized in ancient India, is because men were simply physically stronger, which prompted them to derive pleasure of keeping women in submission for the sake of getting a sadistic pleasure, as it is the case, when we discuss Semitic mentality, for example. Apparently, ancient Aryans who came to India from the North were trying to prevent the racial marginalization of their society, by imposing certain rules of conduct upon women, which were meant to prevent them from having sex with natives. Therefore, it would be more appropriate to discuss male chauvinistic overtones, found in “The Mahabharata”, within a context of biology rather then psychology.
Nowadays, the fact that “The Mahabharata” is explicitly racist epic is being downplayed, because of the dogma of political correctness. For example, in her article “The Symbolism of Black and White Babies in the Myth of Parental Impression”, Wendy Doniger comes up with suggestion that “The Mahabharata” contains no evidence as to the fact that men’s attitude towards women in ancient India corresponded to these women’s color of skin: “Great Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, as we have seen, regarded pallor as the problem, not dark skin, and it considered the dark heroine Draupadi, also called “Krishna” (the Dark Woman), all the more beautiful for her dark skin. But a preference for Hindu brides with light skin color – classist rather than racist, since the lower castes and tribal peoples of India generally had darker skins” (Doniger, 2003). This statement, of course, does not correspond to the objective reality, because, throughout the epic, women from lower castes are being continuously referred to as such that are only capable of giving birth to “snakes”. It appears that ancient Indians were aware of the fact that people affected by racial mixing, lack the spiritual qualities that allowed their ancestors to build and to maintain a civilization.
While reading “The Mahabharata”, it cannot escape our attention that ancient Indian social customs, in regards to women, closely remind our own. According to the epic, women’s social duties include: raising children, taking care of the household, attending religious rituals and advising men on the best course of action, when they face various challenges. Basically, “The Mahabharata” suggests that being a housewife, represents woman’s most natural calling. At the same time, women are not being referred in it to as such that have no soul (with exception of those who belong to the caste of Shudras). Thus, we can draw parallels between many Indian women attaining existential independence, as it is being shown in “The Mahabharata” on numerous occasions, and women in today’s Western world becoming a famous politicians, like Margaret Thatcher, who became British Prime Minister, despite the fact that she was not being preoccupied with anything else but acting as housewife, in her off-work time.
Conclusion
Thus, the portrayal of women in “The Mahabharata” can be best described as being utterly complex. In this epic, women appear as being three-dimensional creatures, who often act as men’s superiors. However, “The Mahabharata” also includes passages that refer to women in low regard. Thus, it will only be logical to suggest that it is not authors’ biasness that corresponds to the inconsistency in description of popular attitudes towards the women, found in epic, but women’s actual worth. It appears that men in ancient India were simply able to discuss women’s role in society, without the fear of being charged with “sexism”. The reason why women in “The Mahabharata” are being talked about as “beautiful” and “ugly”, is because someone women are beautiful, while other others are ugly, and one does not have to be an expert on Sanskrit literature to understand this simple fact. Therefore, the actual value of “The Mahabharata” is going to increase in the future, because it appears to be only the matter of time, before people will be referring to it as not simply a literary piece, but also a practical instruction of what the relation between genders should be all about.
Bibliography
Doniger, Wendy “The Symbolism of Black and White Babies in the Myth of Parental Impression”. Bnet Business Network. (2003). Web.
“The Mahabharata”. The Great Hindu Epic Translated by R C Dutt. About.Com. (2007). Web.
“The Mahabharata”. Translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli. Full Books.Com. (2002). Web.