Becoming a Gendered Body Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Becoming a Gendered Body - Essay Example While these ideas are evident in adult bodies, there has not been a great deal of study into how these ideas are originally formed as it is commonly assumed to be natural. Martin suggests it is instead something created at about preschool age, at least partly as a result of the hidden school curriculum in which students are taught to behave in specific ways to facilitate the needs of the classroom, teaching and reinforcing specific gendered behavior in the process. The research method for the study was participant observation as the researcher observed five different preschool classes in two different preschools located in the same city. One was located near the city's university and the other was a Catholic school. The study group consisted of 112 children and 14 teachers in which all of the teachers were female. Of the children, 58 percent were boys and 42 percent were girls with very little diversity of ethnicities and little or no difference in economic class as all of the childr en were classified as having come from middle class homes. The researcher and her assistant observed activities within the classroom approximately three times per week for eight months, taking notes and trying to remain as unobtrusive as possible within the classroom setting. Observations were taken during both structured and unstructured activity times. Field notes were then analyzed using Hyper-Research software. Martin determined that gender among young children is created through a variety of factors. One of the most significant factors was dress/body adornment. Surprisingly, she found that most little girls were dressed in pink or pastels almost every day while boys were dressed in primary colors, green, orange and black, but never pink.

Fertility Pattern and Economic Struggle Research Paper

Fertility Pattern and Economic Struggle - Research Paper Example Feminism is a very important concept that must be thrown light upon when gender conflict is being talked about. Feminist aims at providing women more power and more rights than ever seen before. There are several feminists fighting for the rights of women all across the globe. Respect is also another important factor for which the feminists are consistently fighting. Gender conflict has made us understand how people enjoy preferential treatment and how the inferior strive for parity in the society. Race conflict is also quite similar to gender conflict, some people consider that their race is superior and others are inferior to them, this is certainly beyond the pale. Having a level playing field in the society is essential to facilitate growth; an ideal society always provides a level playing field. â€Å"Rae Lesser Blumberg developed a theory emphasizing women’s degree of control of the means of production and the distribution of economic surplus.† (Blumberg) Blumberg ’s aimed at explaining the position of women relative to men in almost all types of societies. These societies included the earliest societies to the late twentieth century. This theory discussed some really important aspects like economic power of women, importance of women in the society, economic power of women in the society, sexual stratification so on and so forth. â€Å"Sexual stratification, Blumberg argues, is ultimately driven by the degree to which, relative to men, women control the means of production and the allocation of productive surplus or, in Marxian terms, â€Å"surplus value.† Such control gives women  economic power  that, in turn, influences their level of political power, prestige, and other stratifying resources. In Blumberg’s view, sexual inequalities are â€Å"nested† at diverse levels: Male-female relations are nested in households; households are nested in local communities; and if a society is sufficiently large to revea l a coercive state and a system of class stratification, household and community are nested inside of the class structure that, in turn, is lodged within a larger state-managed society. This nesting is important because women’s control of economic resources can be located at different levels, and the level at which their economic power is strongest influences the power that women can command at the other levels of social organization.† (Feminist Conflict Theory) Macro level control and micro level control are some important aspects which must be paid attention to. A woman is ought to enjoy power in a household if she contributes immensely to the income of a household, she will have a say in micro aspects of the household as well if she can contribute towards work and family income. Similarly a woman who is not able to earn and contribute towards the household income will not enjoy as much freedom and control as a woman who can earn and support her family. Financial free dom is extremely important for a woman to be considered powerful enough; only a powerful woman can make decisions and can stand against oppression. Economic power at a macro level facilitates women in getting political as well as coercive power in the society. The economic power of women is consistently on the rise; this is the time of transition. This period of transition is perceived as a major threat by men.