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Rebeca Navarro

Professor: Batty

English 28

15 November 2017

We Are Not Just Women

In other countries, your gender determines your destiny. In the United States, however,

your gender does not create much barriers in ones success. Some women can achieve more than

men but, in other countries that is not allowed. In some places women are obligated to follow a

certain role in society and, mostly has to do with tradition. The life of a women in those places is

full of many obstacles and hardships which can be seen through how, women do not have rights/

freedom, are compelled to follow the role of being a housewife, and live in society where men

being superior to women.

As the years have gone by many things have changed. Such things include women

gaining the right to vote, join the army, work in desired jobs,and being involved in politics. Most

importantly, women are now given the right to advance in their education. Sadly, in other

countries, its not the same case. For instance, a friend of mine knew someone that had been sent

from Syria to the United states to finish high school. She was supposed to head back once she

finished, marry a man whom she did not know and become a housewife. When the time came

around she ran away because she wanted to become a doctor, but her family wouldnt let her.

This shows us that women from the United States should be glad to have all these rights. As we

can see, in this girls culture her father was the one who made the choices. Her role was to follow

what her father had planned out. She was able to find the courage to break free from tradition
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and follow her dream. She demonstrated that men are not superior to women and that a woman

herself is strong minded enough to choose what's right.

According to the traditions of these cultures men have a higher-ranking than women.

They believe that men are capable of making the right decisions for everyone. In the book How

The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent by Julia Alvarez, there are many examples where it shows

that men are superior to women. For instance, the father in the book says, For a male heir ...

There was now good blood in the family against a future bad choice by one of the

women.(Alvarez p.26-27). This demonstrates to us how, men from this culture believe women

cannot make the right choices. Thus, it is necessary that men fix of their wings. Most of the time

this is the reason why womens status is lower than mens. Men are taught to believe they can be

someone in life. Such as when the grandfather tells his grandson You can go to the moon...

(Alvarez p.27). He was saying all of this while his little granddaughter was present and listening.

Even though the grandfather doesnt show that it bothers him to have only girls you can tell by

his reaction to his grandsons birth that, he was bias about gender roles. According to Gender

Roles in Society, Femininity says something about the expected behavior of men and women in

any given society. This means that there is a certain behavior each gender should have. This all

leads back to gender roles and how men are known for their strength and women by their

sensitivity, which consequently gives women the role of staying home to cook and clean. While

men go out to work.

Mens perspective towards the role of women in other places is unfair. Women are

expected to cook, clean, have children and so on. In places such as Central America, there are
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many cases where girls aren't allowed to go to school and express their opinions. This has a lot to

do with the many obligations women have that make it impossible for the to attend school. As a

child, my mother was the second to youngest of twelve children. All her brothers went to school

except for her, it was a bit harder to attend. My mother would wake up at four in the morning and

due to the fact that she was the only girl out of the four girls that were living with her parents,

she had to do everything herself. By seven oclock breakfast had to be made, the dishes washed

and put away, the maize had to be kneaded, laundry washed and folded, the cows milked,

chickens feed and many other chores. If she was not finished with her chores she wasnt able to

attend school. As for her brothers, they would wake up and finish the rest of the hard work in the

evening. In El Salvador most families who can't afford to send their children to colleges usually

send the men to college therefore they can get a great career and earn good money. As for the

girls they stay at home working and cleaning waiting for someone to marry them Since the men

believe the girls can get pregnant instead of studding. It becomes the same cycle all over again

with every generation

Women are undervalued in many cultures. In these many cultures, men are expected to

do most hard labor while women become housekeepers doing less demanding jobs. Women are

not allowed to advance in these societies. Nevertheless, the world is changing and

society/cultures with it. Each day more women are joining the work field,becoming more

involved in politics, gaining higher education. These people are held back due to the their lack

knowledge and bias blinding them of the fact that women deserve more than what they are being

given, including gender equality. Someone's role in life and who they should be should not be

based on their gender but rather on how far they are willing to go to become someone better. It
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shouldnt matter whether that you're a man or a woman to be given equal opportunities. Women

should be able to make their own choices, go to school if they wish too, and lastly, they should

be allowed to be independent without having to heavily rely on someone.

Works Cited:

(Alvarez Julia, How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Algonquin Books Of Chapel Hill

2010)

(SmithChris,www.culturematters.com,Copyright 2007-2017,

October, 21 ,2017)