Women at Home

source:https://generationalwomanhood.files.wordpress.com

Women have different roles at home according to their culture and tradition, the expectations of a women in one culture and their roles at home have have certain similarities and differences with another. One major similarity that most people might know is that the mother is the one who takes care of the children and does things like cook dinner or do laundry; however, the differences between cultures is the expectations of how much the woman must stay at home. It might be hard for a person to recognize this difference, but I grew up in America and family who takes our Asian culture seriously; therefore, it is easier for me to distinguish these difference in culture with women and their familial roles. In the article “The Changing Roles of Women in Asia — From Bedroom to Boardroom” the author, Nancy Anderson, discusses the roles of women in Asia, mostly China, and the things occurring in their lives regarding marriage and family. In comparison, in the article “Honorary Men: The Role of Women in America” the author familiarises us with the role of women at home.

In Nancy Anderson’s article, she discusses the relationship between Asian women at home with their husbands/families and trying to strive towards equality with work. In many Asian cultures the man has most to all of the power in the house and work, this leaves women to being inferior with no say in their relationship with their husband. Anderson states that “ China is the only country in the world where more women commit suicide than men. Every year, 1.5 million women attempt to take their own lives and 150,000 (one woman every four minutes) actually succeed. Many seem to feel that there is no way out of an abusive marriage and often no one to turn to, no money and not enough education to find a job in order to be self-sufficient.” this is very heartbreaking and hard for people to understand because in America there is not this circumstance where women can sufficiently live on their own. This comes with tradition, women have always been below and bowing down to men however,  “China also has another problem  a shortage of women. The “one-child” policy that came into force in 1975 and China’s traditional preference for male children over females means men between the ages of 21 and 36 are finding it difficult to get married. The government census of 2000 showed that the country has 20 percent more boys than girls, aged 0 to 4 years.That is, four boys will be competing for the hand of one girl in the future.” This happened because of the culture that was established, when you look back in history, in China people only wanted males to carry on the name, but it becomes a problem when there are no women. Unfortunately this is what culture and tradition has brought them and “ it is still a man’s world with many men desperately holding onto traditional views of what a woman’s role in society and the home should be. Also, many women continue to rank themselves third in importance, behind the husband and children.”

In comparison to the Asian culture the role of women at home is not as intense and they are gaining more freedoms as time passes. In the article ““Honorary Men: The Role of Women in America” the author lays out a clear view of how American women have more freedom at home but are still expected to hold a familial role of staying mostly at home. The author states that “It is clear that women in America enjoy much more personal freedom and independence than women in many other parts of the world.” and this is seen by everyone. Unlike China, women are able to sustain a living without a husband and do not have to place themselves behind the husband and children. Another interesting point the author brings up is that “ in many other places in the world, women are expected to hold marriage and children as their primary goals and interest. Here, women are generally more interested in these things than the men are, but they do not necessarily place them first on their “to do” lists. In America, a woman is just as likely to decide that her education, for instance, needs to be completed before she can consider marriage or family. She may decide that her career needs to develop to a certain point first. In short, an American woman may have the same kind of broad concerns about conducting her life that men have around” and this is very true. Today you see many women aspiring to have a successful job first before they reach the point of starting a family.

Future Research: What kind of jobs to women typically hold in their culture?