Division of Labor and Gender Roles in the Society - Essay Example

 Division of labor refers to the cooperation of people in a community to perform different and specified roles associated with the economic, social and political activities of the community. Often, this is aligned with gender. In reference to Mary Stewart's article ‘A view from Other Cultures: Must Men Fear "Women's Work"? , the description of gender roles and division of labor is observed to have taken place over a long period. It begins by introducing one to the world of a division of labor and clearly distinguishing between men's and women's roles in the society as seen by anthropologists. Women's work is considered to be in sync with nature; that is having a need for nurturing and care whereas men's work involves much physical input and strength. Since time in memorial, this has made women be viewed to be as subordinate beings because they are required to take care of their surroundings and nurture it while men are considered to be dominating as they take care of much heavier tasks. This is in a great way supported by the biology where the man is known to be more masculine than a woman hence men are regarded of higher value than women. Mary further studied the roles of gender in the society and concluded three theories that clearly defined the division of labor with respect to gender. The first theory is based on the division of labor on the basing of nature and culture. Nature in this aspect refers to life and its essential qualities which, greatly describes women as they have been created to give life and nurture it. Culture refers to a way of life of society. It entails the society's behaviors, beliefs, values and symbols the society accepts to govern itself. Men have the tendency to conform to the views of society and how they are expected to deliver their roles. With women's nurturing nature more so towards children, there begins a close relationship with them. This in the view of men is sensitive and fragile, making them feel stronger and dedicate themselves to technical activities. The second theory considers domestic and public roles of society. Child care and homemaking are part of the works considered to be for women. This makes them closer to home than men as they have to care for people in the homestead. Men take public jobs to be away from home. This makes them more respected as providers than women who are rarely seen in the society. The third theory describes the division of labor with respect to the objective relationship and the family life of people. At the age of three children tend to know themselves hence the task of becoming comfortable, aware and responsible for your gender and its roles and. They begin to find ways of being emotionally secure with who you are and hence be happy. Women's nature to nurture begins to develop in girls, and they slowly progress and assume the role fully. For the little boys, they love their mothers' way of care learns soon that they cannot grow up to be like them but to be like their fathers. With the absence of one or one being rarely seen to have very little influence on the boys who, they become less aware of whom they are what they are supposed to be which is not like their mothers. These makes a little boy insecure and have doubts about his manhood abilities. He grows older; he learns that being a man is a privilege hence, and he is socially more important than the females, making him do his best to prove to be a real man. He does this by distancing himself from women, denouncing feminine characteristics he may have and on great extents, mistreat women. He continues with this behavior pattern until he has domestic and sexual need to be fulfilled by her. (Stewart, 1998) Men idealizing women are seen from the process where they regard them to be much more grounded than they are. Women are more connected to each other emotionally hence a girl child grows much more in touch with herself than the boy child. This makes men in later years to keep a safe distance from them and have an impossible demand of womanly perfect, dreading that a woman might strip him off his masculinity. Due to their past experiences most men avoid nurturing connections with his sons and unwittingly contributing to their insecure masculinity and women rejecting behaviors, hence a cycle. Mary after observing the Pygmy culture of central Africa concludes that men should not fear women work but derive a balance in the society where women can access a part of the public works of society while men assume some responsibilities in the homestead. The Pygmy though of a lesser population than any other people's population have little regard for gender roles. Both genders perform the private and public works in their society, depending on the need. It is even pleasing to note that the intellectual of both genders is at par in the Pygmy culture. From this study, it is, therefore, wise to conclude that there should be a balance between the division of labor among men and women. Men should be integrated into the domestic sphere and women into public works and cultures such as leadership. This does not mean that men are being lowered of their value or that women are being given the power to denounce the male authority in their lives but rather it will lead to not only an elevation of women's value to a level of respect but also the rise of a better generation of men who have been brought up with a father present all through their upbringing. (Wright, Gomick, & Meyers, 2009). References Read More