Global Gender Issues

In watching the documentary on the Masai women and reading about women's experiences in industriaized nations such as the United States, it is clear that while there is clearly a greater emphasis on shared gender roles in the West than in Masai culture, there are still very interesting similarities: namely, that in both Masai and American culture, women are still expected to be the primary caretakers for children regardless of whatever roles they might also have. It was interesting in reading these articles that while the underlying assumption in American culture is (rightly) that gender equality is something largely achieved in the U.S. and women do have more options than ever before, there is still a great disparity in many cases between men's contributions to DOMESTIC work and that of women's. The general trend, then, is that women are still the primary caretakers of the house and children: they simply have added extra duties onto their careers. It is interesting that the solutions for many of these double-income families is not for the men to increase their contributions to housework, but instead to hire a nanny or another caretaker who is almost always a woman. The irony as demonstrated in Chapter 15, of course, is that in many cases this simply can aggravate and displace the global gender inequality and related family problems. Josephine's story was one of countless in which she had to leave behind her own family in order to do "women's work" in various other places in the world (which already serves to reaccentuate the ideas of women's roles being tied strongly to the domestic sphere). Other stories are certainly even more compelling, as women are bought, sold, and otherwise traded and used even as sex slaves; now, sex tourism and prostitution (especially forced) are increasingly large industries and are almost always focused on women. Similarly, this business in the age of globalization and the proliferation of increasingly more "lock-step" messages in the media, this notion that women are merely sources for entertainment could serve to create even more serious problems for gender equality on a worldwide level---and the Western countries are just as guilty in making this part of the problem.

What, then, do we see when we look to the Masai culture? After watching the film, I realized how glad I am not to be a woman in that culture, because knowing the other opportunities I can have that do not revolve around being completely dependent on other men and their fates for my entire life (and even just thinking of having a female circumcision done as a ceremony and without any sorts of drugs just makes me cringe), I just don't think I could handle living in that kind of society. However, I at the same time I fail to completely see what would make the Masai approaches to gender so especially appalling. After all, in the end, they are a collective society, and even though the women are given (and accept) a lower station in life, they still have found ways to survive, band together for solidarity, and find happiness in life. I think, then, this goes back to an ethics concern: as the video pointed out, Masai women weren't as interested in hearing about the outside world except for the matters regarding property rights; therefore, how much should the anthropologist really work to try to change gender issues? It seems to me that it would generally make much more sense for the anthropologist to not be too hasty to condemn these very clearly defined gender stratification concerns, because a swift and sudden change to any cultural system could end up causing far greater damage than improvements. Perhaps the best way to start is to first consider the overall happiness of the society as a whole. It is true that the women do not know any other way of life and thus would naturally be more content with their positions in life, but overall, if the society is cohesive, stable, and not dysfunctional, how much really should the anthropologist really do to change it? After all, there has been a great amount of backlash in the Middle East regarding the American perceptions on gender equality and women's issues, and considering the other international political tensions, oftentimes our well-intentioned means of encouraging greater rights for women have been met with hostility and yet another hegemonic product of our self-righteous cowboy-style wielding of global power. I know that earlier I did write of anthropology and ethics, and especially regarding female genital mutilation, however, this documentary provides a clear example of the shades of grey regarding human rights....still, I have to maintain that the anthropologist should find culturally-acceptable means of improving a society. Perhaps this means that in this case, in this age of swift advancements in technology, the "discoveries" of other societies' views positions on women may occur sooner rather than later, and it should be the anthropologist's job to help guide these women in how to process and make sense of all of the new ideas that will eventually reach them even before trying to take action. The best thing, it seems, may just be to allow these cultures to come into contact with other ideas, and then help the people in those societies to readjust to the resulting changes in their perceptions in (once again) culturally-suitable ways and means.

Recently in my Chinese class I've also had to write a short essay on the situations of gender equality in China and the changing statuses and expectations for men and women in this rapidly changing nation. Overall, it is clear that considering the various nuances present in many cultures regarding gender roles, labels, stereotypes, etc., and especially considering that I haven't been to Kenya or China, I personally feel that my understanding is inadequate to really write well about what should be done about gender equality as it relates to human rights. The best thing I can think of as an individual so far is to continue to be someone who does not go out of my way to have my identity almost exclusively defined by my gender, but rather defined by my abilities, general personality traits, interests, and my opinions as well, and perhaps from there help to encourage people to realize that just as much as gender is present in defining ourselves, there is also much else that can help us realize our full identities. This, if anything, seems to be one of the lasting and most pervasive contributions of the West and especially American culture to the notions of gender and status, which is that even fewer parts of our identities must be ascribed, because even within very collective societies, there can still be considerable room for achieved statuses that can serve to redefine gender and women's opportunities in society.