UNDERSTANDING YOUR ACT/CREATING SOCIAL CHANGE ACT

Understanding Your Act/Creating Social Change Act

Understanding Your Act/Creating Social Change Act

Accepting a social change in genders is a big challenge indeed. Though modern women are expected to be both nurturing mothers and career women, strive for professional success, declare their freedom and their rights, they still want to be feminine and attractive. I think that women will always be attracted by men and avoiding feministic extremes, they understand that still we live in a world that has been in various ways both male - and female-dominated, both patriarchal and matriarchal. Though it's a pity that more and more families aren't built on love, modern women have developed a new concept of marriage - "companionate marriage" in which husbands and wives are seen as friends, equals, and sexual partners. Gender is a social construct that defines roles and responsibilities of men and women, regulating the role of sexuality, choice of occupations by men and women and the stereotypes. (Andersen et. al 2008) Recognising the distinction between sex and gender is vital, in order to comprehend structured social inequality between both men and women. The word 'gender' is often used in the wrong context, i.e. assuming sex and gender are the same concept. However this is not the case. The first person to recognize this distinction was Margaret Anderson. she stated that 'feminism' is the biological makeup which defines the differences between men and women, i.e. external genitalia and internal genitalia. He also defined 'gender' to be what make people either feminine or masculine, he continued on pointing out that sex and gender can be independent of each other. There has been a traditional double standard for men and women, and the law has generally prescribed second-class citizenship for women. Nowadays we call that tradition sexist, and we tell ourselves that the situation is different. But can we rightfully say that men and women have an equal relationship in society? The female child has as many goals as the male child, but statistically she is unable to realize these goals because of the obstacles that society sets in front of her. Society and media attempt to create an illusion that women have every right that men enjoy. (Andersen 2008)

For example, the fact that most secretaries are women and most executives are men, that most doctors are men and most nurses are women, and that most kindergarten teachers are women and most university professors are men. Notice that in every case it is the "male" job that has the greater social prestige and the higher pay. This raises many questions. Is it that women freely prefer to be secretaries, nurses, and kindergarten teachers, and men freely prefer to be executives, doctors, and professors? Do women generally seek out jobs that have lower prestige, or is lower prestige attached to the jobs because women have traditionally done them? Are people socialized differently according to their sex?

In recent history, feminists have rallied against patriarchy and male power ...