Woman Role - Essay Example

Through the ages the status of women in a patriarchal society has been subservient to men. The patriarchal society was created by men to maintain a dominant position in the society that restricts the role of women in any decision making and promotes a set of rules for their conduct and actions, both within the family and outside the family environment. The women are denied the basic right for self expression and empowerment of women has increasingly become a major issue for the societies at large.

The article highlights the social status of Florentine women in Italian society which was marked by clear cut social and cultural expectations that were associated with the different genders. Cooking was considered to be the most significant identity trait of the women which was jealously guarded and nurtured by them through the ages. Though women did not enjoy any economic freedom or had any major decision powers, they, nevertheless, had the sole rights where the various household chores like cooking, washing, ironing, looking after the children’s needs etc.

were concerned. Thus household chores became the main reproduction work of the women which were nurtured through the years. The gender equality was not an option in the olden times but the urbanisation process gradually transformed the social structure and social norms. The dichotomy in the roles of the males and females were reduced when women started going out to earn and contribute financially in the household expenditures. Initially the joint family system supported the working women mainly because other women in the family contributed to household chores thus letting the working woman have respite from the more strenuous household chores.

Later on as urbanization became more pronounced, the joint families were replaced by the nuclear family and in the changing socio economic environment, men also started helping towards household chores, though cooking still remained the most prized traits of the women who loved to show the creativity in the cuisines and pampered their men folk and children by cooking innovative dishes. The ‘wage work’ was the most significant factor of feminist movement because it made women realise that working outside the home gave them more recognition as an individual which was denied to them when they worked long hours at home, doing various household chores.

Laura’s statement that ‘A housewife never gets the recognition that a working woman gets’, succinctly describes the changing expectations of the women. ‘Cooking was often the first chore from the reproductive sphere that men took up’, clearly shows the tacit acceptance of the evolving roles of women in the society by the men. The article indeed, has been able to give an important insight into the evolving roles of genders. The compulsions of the urbanization have been the primary reasons for the empowerment of the women who have been denied their rights as individuals in the patriarchal society.

But despite this highly prejudiced social norms and stifling atmosphere, women have shown that they have the power to influence and make a definite impact on the society, changing and creating a new vision for their untapped potential and great scope for their development as individuals.