Women’s Roles in America, Europe, Africa and China

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Table of Contents

Discussion
Conclusion
Bibliography
Footnotes

In various information sources, one can often observe a stereotypical idea that, in most peoples and cultures, women’s main role was to become a mother and wife. The rigid sex-role separation rooted in the notion that the man performed the instrumental function, and the woman – the expressive one.¹ However, this understanding of the traditional role of women cannot be applied to different cultures universally. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of women in such regions as China, Africa, and Europe.

Discussion

In China, a woman’s life was traditionally built around her family, and it was not appreciated when she could have any activities outside the family and walls of her house.² In particular, a woman who performed her social function correctly would grow up in her father’s family, helping him with the housework, and when she reached marriage age, she would transition into her husband’s family. In her new family, she would be subordinate to her mother-in-law and spouse, and with the birth of her son, she would become a mother and official hostess in the house.

Interestingly, one could observe differences in the traditional roles of women in urban and rural areas. Forced involvement in the labor process gave the villagers (the wives of small artisans and traders) some freedom of which Chinese women living in cities were deprived. Overall, marriage between a man and a woman was a form of living in which women could exercise their social functions necessary for maintaining stability in society.³ The main role of a woman after marriage was to give birth to a son to extend the family. All other activities and affairs could be discussed, but the tasks of giving birth to an heir and procreation were fundamental.

In Africa and Europe, it was also a woman’s responsibility to take care of her family. However, females in these regions had a greater degree of freedom. In particular, in Africa, women were involved in agriculture heavily, and the well-being of their families depended on their involvement with the distributive sector of the economy greatly. In addition, African women were actively engaged in farming and occupied a high percentage of the local market. European women also entered the workforce, however, to a lower degree.⁴ Their main responsibility was taking care of the family while they still had an opportunity to become part of the labor market. As applied to African women, they had both economic and social influence until colonization. In contrast to Africa, where women were quite influential work-wise, in Europe, females were regarded as a threat to the male-dominated labor pool.⁵ For that reason, they were not that heavily represented in it. Greater engagement of European women in labor changed the cultural dynamic of the region.

Conclusion

Thus, it can be concluded that women’s traditional roles in China, Africa, and Europe were varied. This was often the result of the social stratification observed in society. African women played an important role in supporting the economic health of the region while also being responsible for taking care of their families. In Europe, women were involved in production less heavily due to the requirements of the male-dominated market. Meanwhile, in China, women faced quite a few gender-based constraints and had weaker opportunities to become part of the economy.

Bibliography

Buhle, Mari Jo, Teresa Murphy, and Jane Gerhard. A Concise Women’s History. London, England: Pearson Education, 2015.

Dayton, Cornelia H., and Lisa Levenstein. “The Big Tent of US Women’s and Gender History: A State of the Field.” Journal of American History 99, no. 3 (2012): 793-817.

Ebrey, Patricia. “Women in Traditional China.” Web.

Whitehead, Deborah. “Feminism, Religion, and the Politics of History.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 27, no. 2 (Fall 2011): 3-9.

Footnotes

1. Deborah Whitehead, “Feminism, Religion, and the Politics of History,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 27, no. 2 (Fall 2011): 9.

2. Patricia Ebrey, “Women in Traditional China”. Web.

3. Ebrey, “Women in Traditional China”. Web.

4. Mari Jo Buhle, Teresa Murphy, and Jane Gerhard, A Concise Women’s History (London, England: Pearson Education, 2015), 8.

5. Cornelia H. Dayton and Lisa Levenstein, “The Big Tent of US Women’s and Gender History: A State of the Field,” Journal of American History 99, no. 3 (2012): 809.

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Women’s Roles in America, Europe, Africa and China

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