by Jing Wang
Dr.Watt mentioned in class that: “Gender is the
social construction of the biological differences between men and women.” When I sit down and think about words such as
“women,” “female,” “feminist,” “men,” “male,” “patriarchy,” and “masculine,” I feel
that yes, gender is “a learned and socially determined behavior.” Then I start to reflect on how people tend to
tag men and women in different countries and cultures. In fact, it is unfair to both men and women
when people assume how men and women should perform regardless of their
individual characteristics.
Adichie
talked about the stereotypes that people have for feminists in South Africa:
they should look sexless, single, aggressive and not feminine at all, which
reminded of people’s attitudes towards feminists in China. Feminists should be a neutral word but it is
more of a negative word in China. One of
the famous sociologists specialized in gender studies in China, who is
definitely a feminist, told me that never claim yourself as a feminist if you
want to achieve success in this research field.
People will regard you as radical and aggressive and question your work
as biased.
Another
thing that Adichie mentioned was that some of her male friends do not
understand why women still think there was gender inequality since the society
has given tremendously more rights to women in the past twenty years. I still remember the student Union election
back in high school. Our director said that this school valued gender equality
very much so we needed one girl there to show this. Many people understand gender equality in
this way. It is something that we should show and brag about. I do not care who
this woman is and what she can do. All that I care about is that she is a woman
and be there to show how much I value gender equality. I am not denying that it has been great
progress since the time when women could not vote back in the early 20th
century. But what I am saying is that it is far from enough. This so-called equality has tricked us and
blinded us with ignorance and indifference.
All these stereotypes and tags are unfair to both
women and men. I question why men must
be masculine, what is the whole point of this since we are not cavemen and will
not starve to death if men did not go hunting.
And I do believe that there should be some cavemen who loved and were
better at caring for babies and sewing while they were forced out to hunt. Just like how people talked about “male
nurses” in China. And to be honest, I doubted their ability to be nurses as
well because I have been taught and seen a lot how women are born
caregivers. But it turned out they can
be great nurses not only in ICU and OR, but also in neonatal department. I was wondering how many good male nurses we
have missed because of the stereotypes and to generalize it, how many good
career women we have missed in traditionally men-dominated fields. Almost all
of us tend to assume what women and men should do and be like to different extents. Just to keep in mind, even baby steps from
thinking in this way will take us to a better world.
Thank you for your post. This really hit home for me. I can fully relate to this stereotype. Before coming to Duke, I worked as a nurse at a primary care clinic in Colorado. People would always look skeptical when they saw that their nurse was male. After drawing blood some patients, I would even hear comments such as, “Wow, you did better than what I thought.” People would think that their care would be less than adequate with a male nurse at the helm. I did not allow this stereotyping to prevent me from accomplishing my tasks as a nurse. I would always do my best to make patients feel comfortable and eventually patients saw that. The community began to change their perspective and look at me less as a male nurse and more like a good nurse. Sure, I wasn’t always perfect, but people saw that I was as good as any female nurse. That’s how it’s supposed to be; the sex of a person does not determine their capability in any work force.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your comment on how many times gender equally is recognized as having both men and women involved, and women are chosen simply because they are women; and this is not gender equality. I personally think that people should be chosen based on their qualifications. I think that there is great value in having both men and women represented in all facets of life as this brings so many more opinions and perspectives to the table. However, I do think that if the only qualified applicants for a job are men, then a qualified man should get the job, and same goes for if the only qualified applicants for a job are women, then a qualified woman should get the job. If a man or a woman is hired just because they are a man or a woman, if they are not qualified for the job, then then end up doing a huge injustice to themselves and potentially influence who is hired in the future based on gender. Issues of gender equality need to be fixed much earlier on in life because only then will a true sentiment of equality be present.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the post. From my perspective, the male nurses situation in China is getting tricky. At the early stage of their career as being a nurse, they are often questioned by other female nurse as well as patients regarding their capability of taking care of patients. However, once they were recognized in accomplishing tasks as good as female nurses, the community would change their perspective and give male nurses more opportunities such as promotion. People would think males are more capable of being a leader or making decisions. From my perspective, when we talk about gender equality in work force, it's not only about hiring people based on their qualifications instead of gender. More importantly, men and women should have equal opportunities in terms of benefits or promotion. People should be recognized not because of their gender but their capability of accomplishing tasks.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for the post Jing. This makes me reflect about how the use of titles such as "sister" or "matron" while addressing nurses continue to promote this stereotype that nurses should be female. This is especially still very common in my home country Kenya and I really like the question you posed "how many male nurses have we missed because of the stereotypes". How do such stereotypes continue to influence peoples decisions?
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this talk it really made me consider perspectives I'd never thought of specifically how infectious disease could impact genders differently. Affirmative action laws have been a huge debate over the years. I believe affirmative action has a right time and place to allow opportunities for women but once those opportunities have become abundant affirmative action can cause more harm than good. When a woman is hired at a company with affirmative action laws in place there is always the underlying thought that she was employed or promoted only because of her gender which can be demeaning and cause more sexism in a work place. Whereas in a company without affirmative action laws gender is not seen as an underlying factor and is thus due to the qualifications of the individual rather than gender which in turn creates more equality and less sexism. Therefore, as both Elizabeth and Hanzhang eloquently put it, it is important to choose employees based on qualifications rather than gender.
ReplyDeleteI have often struggled with gender equality, with the fight that men are equal to men the interventions tend to prove otherwise. Not that I disagree with giving more opportunities to women, but lowering entry criteria for women might introduce more women in the system but it won't empower them as they would still be looked at as less than men. At the end of the day what we are doing at the moment will lead to a shift that will put the men at lesser opportunities than women or else they have to work twice as hard. If they work twice as hard, then in my analysis they remain stronger and more resilient. Gender law need to revisit the definition of equality. I believe women are equally able as men to achieve the same goal with the same criteria but we just have t improve more than one factor in their environment. A girl who has to wake up in the morning in an African country to draw water might be exhausted at school while the boy was rested and concentrate. In this context there is a cultural norm that is putting the women as a lesser position than men not necessarily the school system, although I agree the school system needs to work with community to empower each child make or female
ReplyDeleteThe history of the push for gender equality has been a long and ugly one. Its evolution in the States has been fairly impressive and as of late, the pursuit of gender equality for men in particular has been gaining much attention. In addition to the realm of male nursing, popular culture has begun to pick up on the crusade to portray men as humans, not just as things that should be manly breadwinners. There are more and more songs and movies played that depict the story of single fathers who show up to ballet and karate practice, balance the checkbook, and do the grocery shopping for the family. And while still rare, you see more and more families where the mom works and the father stays at home.
ReplyDeleteAnd more power to these families working to break the stereotypes!
By the way, I really loved this bit of your post:
"This so-called equality has tricked us and blinded us with ignorance and indifference."
The proliferation of indifference is going to be one of the biggest barriers to us achieving true gender equality.