Global issue: The demeaning treatment of women due to stiff gender roles in society
Literary text: A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
Text type: Drama
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Helmer Oh, Nora, Nora, how like a woman! No, but seriously,
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Nora, you know how I feel about this. No debts! Never borrow! A
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home that is founded on debts and borrowing can never be a place
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of freedom and beauty. We two have stuck it out bravely up to
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now; and we shall continue to do so for the few weeks that remain.
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Nora (goes over towards the stove) Very well, Torvald. As you
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say.
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Helmer (follows her) Now, now! My little songbird mustn't
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droop her wings. What's this? Is little squirrel sulking? (Takes out
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his purse.) Nora; guess what I've got here!
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Nora (turns quickly) Money!
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Helmer Look. (Hands her some banknotes.) I know how these
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small expenses crop up at Christmas.
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Nora (counts them) One – two – three – four. Oh, thank you,
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Torvald, thank you! I should be able to manage with this.
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Helmer You’ll have to.
Non-literary text: Let Girls Learn by Michelle Obama
Text type: Speech
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For me, it was the drumbeat of horrifying stories: Malala Yousafzai shot in the
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head by terrorists just for speaking the simple truth that girls should to go
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school. More than 200 Nigerian girls kidnapped from their school dormitory by a
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terrorist group determined to keep them from getting an education –- grown men
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trying to snuff out the aspirations of young girls. Little girls being brutally assaulted
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on their way to school, being forced to marry and bear children when they’re barely
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even teenagers. Girls in every corner of the globe facing grave danger simply
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because they were full and equal human beings – that’s what they decided –
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worthy of developing their boundless potential.
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And the more I traveled and met with girls and learned from experts about this
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issue, the more I realized that the barriers to girls’ education isn’t just
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resources. It’s not just about access to scholarships or transportation or school
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bathrooms. It’s also about attitudes and beliefs -– the belief that girls simply aren’t
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worthy of an education; that women should have no role outside the home; that their
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bodies aren’t their own, their minds don’t really matter, and their voices simply
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shouldn’t be heard.
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And like many of you, as a woman, I take all of this personally. While I’m thankful
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that I’ve never faced anything like the horrors that many of these girls endure, like
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most women, I know how it feels to be overlooked, to be underestimated, to have
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someone only half listen to your ideas at a meeting – to see them turn to the man
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next to you, the man you supervise, and assume he’s in charge – or to experience
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those whistles and taunts as you walk down the street.