Essay Example on Gender Dynamics in Society: Varied Experiences, Shared Connections

An average society is characterized by people with different social traits and backgrounds. For instance, the difference in gender has often amounted to skewed treatment by members of society towards a particular gender. Regardless of the differences in the social aspects of gender, humans interact with one another to influence their lives in a community. The difference in social constructs forms a foundation for the varied experiences that people undergo in the society. The beliefs about gender have shaped the ways Americans experience family life by instilling inequality constructs based on the social aspects at the family level.

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The beliefs about gender have shaped the ways Americans experienced family life by favoring masculinity over feminism. Like most parts of the world, males in America were considered to be a superior gender to females (Lady, 1801). In a family set up, the favoritism could be witnessed from the education experience of male and female siblings. The siblings would be sent to the same school in their early stages of life because of the similarity in augmentation of the mind. At around the age of ten years, the boy is taken away from a common school and transferred to an academy, where he gets nurtured to take the highly regarded professions such as law or medicine (Lady, 1801). On the other hand, the sister gets withdrawn from the common school to a place where there is no literary improvement, characterized by effectual immure. The girl is barred from preferment and lacks any incentives that can inspire them to the public utility through superior enlargement of the mind. As such, the males are motivated to adopt science and public utility while the females get confined to domestic labor and secluded from the public concerns. Families struggled to identify the gender of a child to identify the ways through the society would treat them as they grow (Zraick, 2019).

The beliefs about gender have also established a permanent feeling of inferiority within the family lives of women in the African race. Regardless of the high number of geniuses who are of African descent, the African females have been made to believe that their women are inferior to the males (Lady, 1801). The family has since been designed in such a way that the African females are considered to lack intellectual abilities that match those of the male counterparts. Therefore, the women from the African race do not have the confidence to contest against the males in the society (Lady, 1801). The females have thus been held in the vilest bondage for the longest time possible.

The significance of black women in a chauvinistic America is one of the contributing factors to Virginia's earliest legal discrimination. By around 1660, enslaved African women had outnumbered the English servant women in various counties in Virginia. Similarly, African-American women had outnumbered their Indian counterparts in the same region. However, the females did not utilize their huge numbers to wage a revolution against unequal treatment in America. Instead, they became contented with their inferior position in society as the men were given priority. This state demonstrated that women got acclimatized to discrimination and unfair treatment in the society following the beliefs of inferiority that went on in American families.

Illustratively, the African families do not have the distinction of intelligence between their males and females as contested among the white race. In case there is any difference in natural talents between the sexes among African-Americans, then the difference would not favor the females. Africans have displayed a great share of genius, strong mental power than the whites who are applauded by most people (Lady, 1801). The beliefs about gender have for so long accustomed families to believe that black females are inferior to their male counterparts in America. It is unjust to make no allowance between male and female children or transgender children. The African-American families associate their females with slavery while the males associate themselves with early liberty, hence depressing the minds of the women (Lady, 1801). Moreover, the beliefs about female gender made the families of African descent to be accustomed to the oppression that they were subjected to by the whites. For instance, they accepted the fact that black women were exploitable creatures in white plantations. Reportedly, the African women perceived fieldwork not to be indicative of nastiness or servility. Instead, they considered fieldwork to be gender appropriate labor, thus facilitating their exploitation by the whites (Brown, 2019).

The beliefs in America made the traditions of black families to be eroded because they were perceived to be inferior to those of the whites. In colonies where the public acknowledgment of Africans' domestic traditions failed to protect them from sweating in the fields of tobacco, the domestic traditions of the African-American women were ignored and easily eroded over time (Lady, 1801). The bondage, as well as legal constraints that transpired among African-American families, changed the context of the African's agricultural labor (Brown, 2019). The subordination of the black women to the demands of the whites, as well as the family systems, eventually established the legal foundation of slavery and future definition of gender inequality. Hansen (1995) highlighted that the mistreatment of black females by the whites was not unique in society because the practice had existed since time immemorial. The North maintained their segregationist customs and laws, yet the African-Americans still had to fight to earn equal treatment from the whites (Hansen, 1995). The females had to struggle before earning any form of the dignity of access to public facilities like the males.

The beliefs on gender had an immense influence on the American family experience since they limited interactions between families that came from different classes. According to Hansen (1995), Addie was concerned with her right to love Rebecca without crossing the path of her family members. Both males and females have the right to associate with people of their choice. Unfortunately, the beliefs on the inferiority of women made families skew the right in favor of males at the expense of the females. Technically, females could not declare their love stories in the open, especially if it went against the norms. As such, Addie had to express herself through letters because she lacked the appropriate platforms that were enjoyed by men in professing their love stories. This kind of treatment indicates that males are favored in society at the expense of females.

Brown (2019) demonstrated that gender of slaves was not just a symbolic brand that marked males and males but also created an avenue through the responsibilities of the males and females could be deployed. The African-American families were perceived to exist in the lowest of social classes and could only be treated by their masters as such (Brown, 2019). Female slaves were allowed to interact with others in the community. The majority of them were confined to house chores that limited their abilities to interact with other people. Some of the female slaves were mistreated and molested the white mastered. However, they did not have any opportunity or platform to raise their grievances, unlike their male counterparts. Lack of equality between the male slaves and the female slaves led to low esteem among the latter and consequently created a lack of true rational felicity within the connubial states in American families.

According to Hansen (1995), beliefs about gender guided females to odd jobs because they were considered not to be competitive in the job industry. Reportedly, there was no guarantee by Harford's prosperity for the economic security of the females because they were often excluded from factory jobs and other skilled trades. Addie particularly made a living as a seamstress, domestic servant, an assistant cook, and a teamster before she died. She not only accede her situation but also recognized her limits. The females never got stable jobs like their male counterparts. Instead, they changed their jobs from time to time as long as they could earn a living out of it. Moreover, the females are forced to take punishing jobs, unlike the males in the same society. The inequality in American families in gender lines forced the females to accept their unfortunate state and ignore revolutionary activities that could make their positions count in society. Technically, gender beliefs made men in American families to consider females from low social class or those who were uneducated as life companions to safeguard and retain their supremacy in society. As such, the unfair, unequal treatment continued in the society as no female was empowered to think otherwise about her position.

Conclusion

The beliefs about gender shaped the ways Americans experience family life by instilling inequality constructs based on social aspects at the family level. The families went through the experiences that made the males appear superior to the females. Females were largely considered exploitable by the white males. Therefore, their white counterparts only subjected them to mistreatment, while the black males remained unconcerned about the treatment. Beliefs about gender capabilities rendered families to believe that only the males deserved a better education. The ladies would only be confined within the house to perform odd chores as the males took lucrative professions such as law. Females did not have opportunities contest for competitive job opportunities alongside their male counterparts. Moreover, the females did not have the freedom to declare their sexual orientations openly.

References

Brown, K. M. (2019). Good wives, nasty wenches, and anxious patriarchs: Gender, race, and power in colonial Virginia. The University of North Carolina Press. Retrieved from http://brookscollegeprep.org/sites/default/files/courses/brown_engendering_racial_difference_1640-1670_exceprt.pdf

Hansen, K. V. (1995). 'No kisses is like yours': an erotic friendship between two African-American women during the mid-nineteenth century. Gender and History, 7(2), 153.

Lady. (1801). The Female Advocate. County of Middlesex.

Zraick, K. (2019). Texas father says 7-year-old isn't transgender, igniting a politicized outcry. Retrieved 16 December 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/28/us/texas-transgender-child.html