Gender Codes Rules on Women Rights Research Assignment
please read instructions carefully: get quotes from book bread givers only.
One of the central claims that James Gilligan makes in his book Violence, and that Mary Pipher makes in her book, Reviving Ophelia, is that girls and women in the United States today are being terribly harmed by something called the “Girl Code.” (This code is actually nothing more than the socially expected gender rules for women.) Pipher argues that this Code is everywhere and that girls and women have a hard time not changing their behavior to meet the Code's guidelines. He goes so far as to say that any girl who resists the code should be called a Hero. And yet, anthropologists have argued that the job of any society is to keep itself growing and prospering. And if this means that some individual members of the society suffer—as long as the society itself is improved--well that is the way it goes.
For this paper you will be investigating these ideas and coming to your own conclusions about whether you think this trade-off (between the needs of women and the needs of a greater society) is worth it. Here are the questions for you to consider:
What do you think are some elements of this Gender Code for women in the book or movie?
What are the negative consequences for women when they follow the code in the book or movie?
Could the Code offer any Positive benefits for women? For society?
Is Sara a Hero? Why or why not?
Is Sara a Feminist? Why or why not?
Of course you will want to start paragraph topic sentences off with concepts and keywords, while trying to keep people—Reb/Sara—out of that part of the paragraph. They are brought in later to support your concept.
And of course you must integrate quotes from Bread Givers, Hester Street and from any other helpful sources you may have in order to support your points. You need to average 2-3 quotes per page of the paper.
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Gender Codes Rules on Women Rights
Introduction
Women in the society are dreadfully harmed by the girl’s code which provide a taboo like guidelines has drawn attention and become of the feminism agenda. Girl code refers to the guidelines and beliefs that the girl child is expected to adhere to so that she cannot be excommunicated from the community, however, these guidelines varies depending on culture and the way someone was brought up. For instance if a girl has been brought up in a very strict household where they lack individuality and personal identity they lack a protected space in their adulthood. Whereas, if a girl is brought up in a liberal household that encourages individuality and she became rebellious and self-conscious as she mature, she ends up having a protected space in the adulthood because she has developed her uniqueness. Such a woman has goals and is self-powered, as an achiever she can also contribute in the growth of the society. Women should not be left to struggle since they are the backbone of the society and neglecting the women leads to less than optimal effects in development inputs and the worst negative impacts. Women represent half of the resources and half the potential to the society, this potential remains not to be achieved if there gender inequality and they are discriminated.
A fight for the women rights can be divided into two fights for gender equality to enhance a reduction in the gap in various life situations for example in professions. The second one being, fight for fundamental human rights which applies in situations like the right to an education to women, autonomy and bodily integrity (Berch,98).
The two elements encountered in the book are; the Orthodox Jewish and the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Sara tries to find her place within the codes. In the Orthodox Jewish code defines that a woman as being inferior and they are supposed to be obedient and royal to men. According to the code a woman ideal behavior should be modest as they as trained and thought to be modesty when young and not based on knowledge or authority (Piphe,45). Both the men and women have strict dress and dietary codes to follow. From the book, the sisters are expected to work very hard doing the house chores so that they can give their father ample time to study and read in leisure after which they marry at their father’s will.
In the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant code there is more freedom to women although there are strict rules on the politeness that are related to the social norms and the greater reserve. Sara views this as being alien as she has been brought up in the Jewish traditional way but she fights to become economically independent and become self-motivated since she wants to help her family as well (Yezierskak,105). Women brought up this background they do not depend on anyone to survive but they help themselves and also the society at large.
There are negative consequences faced by this women; one of them is lack of economic independence, from the book Sara desperately wants to be seen a contributor as she comes from a background that survives on scrape pennies but even her own mother was not supportive of her as she say ‘an empty head on one side and craziness on the other side’ Sara feels like her mother is ignoring here and this gives her a push to try and make it. Doomed relationships is another challenge faced, from the book there is a conflict in Sara’s independency as she tries to assist her family financially but her father only want her home or she get married to a wealthy family. Her father feels that through Sara’s independency she will not do what is required of her at home as well as the family values (Yezierska,72).
Loveless marriages, this has been exemplified by Sara’s older sisters marriage. As she tries to seek more freedom from the husband but the husband feels insecure and prefer Sara’s sister to stay at home and do they house work and bring up the children. This makes Sara’s feels very inferior and less loved. Another challenge being lack of migration difficulties , when the family moved to united states which is a more developed country, women are more empowered .Sara being brought up in a different background found it challenging settle but she was determined to change and be an independent woman. She felt like she was not accepted in the society as equal.
Lastly lack of security, when a woman has been brought up in the Orthodox Jewish code and tries to adapt to the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant code there are a lot of insecurity issues within the family member...