Reflection 5
Professor:
Daniel Nimbe-Oviosu
Gender Roles
Gender roles exist in every culture. They are certain attitudes and behaviours that society expects from
people of different genders. In most cultures, men are seen as the breadwinners, and women are seen
as the homemakers. The men go out and make money and protect their families and the women take
care of the house and the kids and make sure there is always food waiting for when the man comes
back. In most cultures, men are seen as more superior to women. However, this is not so in all cultures.
In the Tchambuli Tribe of Papua New Guinea, it is in fact the opposite. The women are the
breadwinners, the men are the homemakers. The women go out and provide for the family and the men
stay at home, cook, clean, take care of the kids, and wear make-up. Hearing this in the lecture made me
think of Hyenas and how their hierarchical system works. I believe it's strictly matriarchal. At the top of
the hierarchy is the queen hyena (I think that’s what they’re called). All the top members of the
hierarchy are usually female while at the very bottom you have the males, That’s funny. It's almost
poetic. Like mother nature raising a middle finger to our societal standards. Makes me laugh.
As society becomes more advanced and people become more educated, these stereotypes are slowly
starting to fade. You now see more women working in bigger more important jobs and getting paid
more than men. A lot of the time, these women are unmarried and do not have kids. It's starting to be
more about qualifications and less about gender, as it should be. However, men work longer hours,
more dangerous jobs so perhaps that’s one reason why they have been paid better than women all
these years. I feel like men will always be paid more than women for certain jobs, only because men are
more suited to work those jobs.
Sexual Harassment
This has been occurring since the dawn of time. Today it definitely still happens. It occurs in the military,
in the church, in the government, in firms, in homes, in schools, at parties, pretty much anywhere that
people of the opposite gender (and sometimes even the same gender) interact. The possibility of it
happening is almost never zero.
A lot of times the victims, who are often women, are blamed for the harassment. Perhaps the victim
dressed a certain way or was being flirty. Some people think that is a free pass to have their way with
the victims. They don’t seem to realize that they are dealing with actual people, with feelings and
emotions and they are scarring them for life, even if they don’t physically hurt them. No matter what,
consent matters. It is something children should be taught in schools. In fact, it should be a whole
course.
Most of the time, victims are afraid to come out with their stories and report sexual harassment, maybe
for fear that they will lose their jobs/ source of income, or they or someone they love will get hurt in
some way.
A lot of the time, these acts are committed by people with power who think that their status makes
them elusive to the law. Obviously, deterrence theory isn’t being utilized enough. Up the sanctions.
Increase the chances of them being caught. I feel like that’s something that could be done very easily
but maybe it’s not that simple. Maybe there’s something I’m missing or misunderstanding. Perhaps
some of the people in power are among the perpetrators.