Role of Women in Forest Management

————————————————- Cudia, Jane Victoria A. February 23, 2011 2007-15891Soc Sci 180 Role of Women in Forest Management Increasingly, the role of indigenous peoples in forest management and conservation had been recognized on the international level. Even if forest management and conservation had been an indigenous practice since time immemorial, recognition of indigenous peoples roles started only three or four decades ago.

However, indigenous peoples as protectors of the environment are taken as a whole disregarding the contribution of roles and differences as contributing factors to the continuous practice of forest management and conservation. In terms of IP roles in forest management and conservation, gender is a very important thing to consider. Given an indigenous social and political context, the management of forests is communal. In general, forest management is primarily the domain of men. Women’s participation on the other hand primarily lies in forest protection because there is an intimate relationship between IP women and the forest (Caguioa, 2011).

However, problem lies in the lack of recognition in national policies as to the roles of IP women in forest management and conservation. The pine forest of Brgy. Agawa, Besao, Mt. Province is a communal forest shared by different communities managed mostly by indigenous peoples. For the people of Brgy. Agawa, the forest or langdas is the source of livelihood and a place where their unique culture thrive, one of the major features of indigenous peoples. In terms of livelihood, the langdas is the source of wild fruits and animals, lumber, and firewood.

In the indigenous law they practice, selling of pine lumber is prohibited. Also, outsiders are prohibited from getting anything from the langdas making the practice sustainable. In terms of tradition and culture, they believe that there are spirits guarding the rivers and forests. This is one of the reasons why indigenous peoples do not exploit the forest resources. Also, they manage the forest in a sustainable way because of the belief that their ancestors, who were buried in sacred places, mingle with their affairs. The role of women in environment protection, forest management, and conservation is very significant.

Two of the key informants of the study conducted by Caguioa (2011) and her colleagues are old women who spent most of their life living in the area. The people of Brgy. Agawa, has a history of resistance in protecting the langdas and the environment. One sign of protest they had done before was the exposure of older women’s breast to oppose people who wanted to operate saw mills in the area back in the 1940s. In response to the secret resin tapping activities done to pine trees that operated during the 1970s, women of Besao secretly removed the plastic catchers and burned all of it.

In general, women of Agawa, Besao, Mt. Province show their protest in the regional and national level in opposition of road construction, mining, and logging projects that will ruin the langdas. Amidst globalization, vulgar consumerism, high demands from the market, and laws that treat us all equals [sometimes even without regard to culture], the people of Brgy. Agawa, Besao, Mt. Province especially women managed the forest in a sustainable way. Following their traditions and belief systems, they had managed to conserve the forest by following natural mechanisms to restore the forest.

Given the resources and knowledge systems we have as members of the dominant and so called “developed” society, we should devise forest management and conservation mechanisms that are easy and applicable. However, due to a market-driven economy we engage in, we have no control over our resources anymore. The working mechanism that works today is “what the market demands, the market gets” even at the expense of the environment and the people who manages to protect and conserve the forest.

Forest management, although primarily dominated by men, it should be the domain of all even if there are differences in gender. As seen in the case of Brgy. Agawa, Mt. Province, women had great contributions in forest management and conservation. It all goes down to this: in effective forest management and conservation, gender roles and differences have a lot to offer. Reference: Caguioa, M. C. (2011). Panagsalaknib ti Langdas: Role of Indigenous Women in Forest Management in Brgy. Agawa, Besao, Mt. Province from the Global Lecture Series on Indigenous Peoples’ Studies (University of the Philippines Baguio).

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Inequalities and Discrimination of Women In The Workplace

In countries such as Brazil, Bangladesh, Cyprus, Macao, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore, women earn 60 percent less than what men earn (256). Although U. S. figures aren”t as extreme as these, women face discrimination in the workplace. In 1999, women held only 5. 1 percent of top executive management positions, and only 3. 3 percent of companies” highest paid workers were women (256). The term glass ceiling is used to describe the situation in which qualified women aspire to fill high positions but are prevented from doing so by the invisible institutional barriers (256).

Discrimination of women in the workplace is a result of men”s power and their reluctance to give up resources and their control over women and can be summed up for women of corporate America by looking at four categories. First, the quality of women”s work tends to be undervalued. Frequently, studies asking participants to assess a piece of work have found that it is evaluated less favorably when said to have been done by a women than when the same piece is attributed to a man (257). Although the tendency to favor a man”s work is not always found, when differences in evaluation are found they tend to favor men.

Further, women”s successes tend to be attributed to “luck”, and competent women are sometimes described as “unfeminine”. Society”s distrust in women”s abilities results from the stereotypical roles which label women as less assertive and expert than men. A second form of discrimination of women in the work place involves making unjustified assumptions about women”s values. Whereas men are assumed to have values that tend to perpetuate the system, women”s values are assumed to challenge it. Felicia Pratto and her colleagues conducted a study testing the status of the positions for which men and women were most likely to be hired.

They found that women were favored to fulfill hierarchy-attenuating jobs (jobs that seek to change the system or improve the lot of people who have been marginalized); men, on the other hand, were favored for the hierarchy-enhancing jobs (which maintain and strengthen the status quo). This was true even when applicants” resumes violated the stereotypes associated with men and women (I. e. men”s career history that indicated they were “attenuators” and women”s which indicated they were “enhancers”) (258).

The work place is made especially difficult for women with children. Up until the 1970s, pregnancy or the potential for pregnancy was used as a justification for discrimination in the U. S. , allowing employers to routinely force women to leave their jobs or take unpaid leaves (259). Women were even excluded from jobs because they might get pregnant. Looking at current issues, however, the U. S. does not hold any government provision for paid maternity leave for female workers, often causing mothers to bear an economic cost which is not borne by fathers (260).

Even when discrimination against mothers is not formal, our culture”s work-family dynamics disproportionately affects women”s careers. Much more women than men have primary responsibility for child care. Working mothers are judged by their community according to how well they parent and work but particularly according to how dedicated they seem to be to parenting. Women, generally, are expected to alter their work commitments when children have problems and are more harshly judged for not doing so (261).

A fourth and final aspect of discrimination against women in the U. S. orkplace lies in the notion that they do not have equal right as men to be employed. The U. S. situation is not as extreme as countries such as Russia and China, where many government bureaucrats and factory managers assert to anyone willing to listen that women belong at home, because in the U. S. such public pronouncements are likely to create an explosion of protests. Still, though, the perception that women”s household duties should come before their careers is widespread. Whereas men carry the obligation to earn an income and support their family, the nurturer role is assumed most important for women (260).

A review of 21 studies showed that between 16 and 46 percent of the identified lesbians, gays, and bisexuals surveyed reported that they had experienced some form of employment discrimination, as discrimination against individuals of these sexual orientations is legal in most workplaces in the U. S. Also, researchers found that lesbian and bisexual women earn about 13 to 15 percent less than heterosexual women. This is in part because they are more likely to be working in the lowest-paying female-dominated jobs, but it also suggest the impact of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (261).

Understanding the circumstances that promote stereotyping and lead to discrimination of women in the workplace provides some clues as to how an organization could act to reduce them. Companies can make an effort not to isolate women in particular job categories. Company managers can avoid falling into the notion that specific jobs require “masculine” qualities by examining job-related assumptions. They can base judgments of whether workers should be hired or promoted on clear and concise criteria. Last, they can develop formal guidelines to be modeled and enforced by top-level management about how to avoid discrimination (265).

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The Woman Suffrage Movement

The Unexpurgated Case Against Woman Suffrage In the early twentieth century, Britain was experiencing a potentially revolutionary social and cultural change. The Woman Suffrage Movement was fighting to procure the vote for women. In the same period, in response to the concept of women voting, Almroth Edward Wright, an English physician, wrote “ The Unexpurgated Case Against Woman Suffrage”.

In Wright’s book, he refutes the Woman Suffrage Movement’s right-to-vote claim by arguing that woman suffrage would be pernicious to the state due to a woman’s inability to represent the physical force and prestige of the nation, a woman’s intellectual defects, and defective moral equipment. Furthermore, he illustrates that women’s rights activists may actually be hindering women with their demands that would ultimately result in women being placed in a far more disadvantageous position than they were before getting the vote.

Wright begins by saying “ The primordial argument against giving woman the vote is that that vote would not represent physical force”. Wright argues that the vote is a symbol of civility, law and order, and imbued with the spirit of a nation to ward off enemies both foreign and domestic. The introduction of a political co-partnership would likely lead to a degeneration of the British Empire into a weak and sickly shadow of its former self. The British Empire would likely exhibit the same symptoms of the latter stages of the Western Roman Empire that competitors would piecemeal steadily over time.

The result would be that leadership to uphold law and control over British subjects and colonies would crumple leaving the door wide open for any other Imperial power to snatch the defenseless British holdings. As such, entrance of women voters would bring an end to the old and familiar Victorian England and usher forth a culturally different England that Wright considers a “social disaster. ” It seems Wright believes that Britain would sustain a detrimental blow to its prestige in the eyes of their colonies and dominions as well as the world, if English women could vote.

This means that women would inhibit the spirits and morale of the British armed forces and would introduce effeminate elements into the masculine dominated British Empire, turning it from “Old Jack” into a “Mary Ann. ” In addition to these concerns, Wright illustrates that a woman’s intellectual defects are because of her minds inability to derive solutions with evidence, which results in an unreal picture of the external world. He also argues that a woman is constrained by her thought process. This is because a woman’s mind is linked to emotional reflex response center.

Wright further explains that because of this link, women cannot give sound judgment and give a critical intellectual analysis without being under severe distress. As a result a woman’s mind gives in to congenial emotional responses that gives them gratification to which Wright points out, women’s minds can serve them only as a tool to comfort and gratify her with mental thoughts that are not too strenuous. Wright continues by illustrating that women and even intelligent women have all sorts of misconceptions about their abilities.

Wright argues that women are delusional in believing that they are physically equal to men to any task. It is quite a grievous mistake that one would believe that women could perform physically strenuous jobs such as coal mining or heavy lifting on a day-to-day basis. Being mentally strain coupled with physical stress, Wright would say that emergencies of the job would be faced continually. It seems that Wright is saying that women overestimate themselves in comparison to men at physically demanding task that they wouldn’t be able to handle it long term.

This would explain why emergencies would happen frequently because accidents would happen weekly if not a daily basis. For that reason, it is improbable to allow women to vote should they also demand to work in jobs that they are realistically incapable of performing over a long duration. This information would serve as ammunition for the industry heads and naysayers to argue that the economy is suffering due to low levels of efficiency and increase expenditure from the government to the DOLE to cover all these accidents; consequently the whole nation suffers.

A third argument that Wright brings up is that women are equipped with defective morals. He explains that women are incapable of putting aside their own interest in favor of the good of the nation and only an uncommonly number of women are able to put aside their personal bias by voting in favor of something that benefits the nation. It seems he is alluding to the fact that women, when put to the vote would most likely vote for positions that would be favorable to anything that has to do her family and would consider anything else frivolous.

The picture painted of women voters’ canvases an extremely selfish and self-absorbed group of people that would not only cause Britain’s foundation to splinter from blatant corruption but summarily result in execution of egregious acts that might as well kill king and country themselves. Wright continues his critique by saying , “ There are no good women, but only women who have lived under the influence of good men. ” Meaning that since women can only use morally defective equipment, women would be congenial creatures that would be easily swayed by their father, husband, or an influential man.

And vote for whatever she has been persuaded to vote for which would consequently inflate propositions perhaps even passing legislation that would have otherwise fallen flat. Because of this he goes on to blatantly say that women, because of their domestic almost animal morality cannot be trusted with the vote for they would not be able to exercise diligently with the exception of a select few. Wright takes the Women’s Suffrage Movement’s claim of a right to the vote and presents it in an exaggerated way.

He first explains that because there are more than three million women in England, these women experience sexual restrictions causing an inbred sense of hostility towards the opposite sex, which Wrights explains that the Suffrage Movement takes advantage these women so that they could achieve their ultimate goal of economic independence of women. However, to attain this goal, they want to have everything from the universities and jobs to every governmental positions open to them.

He claims that they want a radical feminist revolution that throws the very nostalgic English traditions that have been set in stone for centuries out like yesterdays garbage. And replace it with an English egalitarian society that just might as well be a Communist or Fascist state. It’s interesting that Wright takes just the idea of women wanting to vote and morphs the idea in to women wanting to outright dismantle all the mores of society and remove all the distinctions between a man and a woman.

But women later rebuke this argument by saying that they only want the vote, not a revolution and they are good mothers and wives who are raising the British citizens of tomorrow. Wright subtly carts in again the notion of equality for women. He explains that if the government gives in to the demands of women activist, the government would actually be doing a disservice to women in general. Women would have to compete with men for these highly skilled jobs and would most likely not be able to compete with men, which would increase the wealth gap between men and women.

Consequently, this would leave women in a very disadvantageous position of being chronically poor and forced to take odds jobs to survive. Furthermore, women would likely lose their financial support from their husbands and/or fathers because women would now be economic equals to men therefore they must go and find jobs to support themselves. Another problem that Wright points out is that men and women have rarely worked in the same workspace before and with the introduction of equality of work in to mainstream society, the implications of whether or not men and women can work in intimate association raises serious questions.

He continues to explain that before that even occurs, the intellectual immoralities and limitations of women including their sexual character would interrupt intellectual intercourse between men. Interestingly enough, he introduces various examples that synergies his argument. For example, when two men are having a stimulating intellectual conversation, an appearance of a woman in their proximity would put an end to their discussion. So the hypothesis here is that women being admitted in to male dominated intellectual societies and universities would undoubtedly suppress if not bring an end to a pipeline of intellectual growth.

As a result, the proposal of bringing man and woman to work together not only is radical, it maybe detrimental to nation. Wright’s The Unexpurgated Case Against Woman Suffrage” uses a lot of cynical language and seemingly logical explanations to refute women’s right to vote. At the beginning, Wright stabs the issue right in lungs and expounds why it is the way it is and that the vote of women can and will cause unnecessary burdens on the state and the very people trying to protect them.

However, near the end of his piece, he begins to give a very consoling but backhanded compliment of women. It’s painted as if these changes are going to occur, it will undoubtedly cause more hardship for women and that’s why Wright and these naysayers are fighting so hard to protect these ignorant women from themselves. However, Wright’s arguments logical explanations would later succumb to the growing clamor for reform that would eventually culminate in women getting the vote in 1918.

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The Woman Warrior

Brittany Tiano Ms. Wenzel WLS Tutorial 24 October 2012 Reality vs. Fantasy: Kingston’s use of Juxtaposition in The Woman Warrior In The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston writes an honest memoir that focuses in on the lives of five woman; the most important being Kingston, and is told in 5 chapters. As a reader, we get a glimpse into the realities of life for many Chinese emigrants in America and their children. Kingston, who is the narrator in the book, creates an elaborate fantasy in the second chapter, called “White Tigers”.

In it, Kingston portrays a strong warrior woman, who leads her army to victory by overthrowing the emperor at his palace. In reality, she was in America, struggling to get noticed by the unfamiliar people surrounding her. This section of the book bares great importance because it shows the authors use of juxtaposition on the girls reality and a fantasy world she wishes to be in. Readers feel sympathy that she can’t reach her goal of becoming a warrior, but must be stuck in an unfamiliar country where she is ignored and made fun of. Life in America was not all it was cracked up to be.

Kingston learned this pretty quick. Since she was of chinese dissent, she had a very slim chance of ever becoming anything big, maybe an owner of a laundromat, but that’s it. Men would be especially difficult for Kingston to get the hang of as well. She tried to look feminine and be sweet but nothing worked. At school she wasn’t respected. At work she wasn’t respected. While working at an art store, her boss was telling her to order more of a certain type of yellow and he used the “N” word to describe it. She says, “‘I don’t like that word,’ I had to say in my bad, small persons voice that makes no impact.

The boss never deigned to answer”(Kingston 48). In America, Kingston is especially down on herself and winey: “Nobody supports me at the expense of his own adventure. Then I get bitter: no one supports me; I am not loved enough to be supported”(Kingston 48). She feels like she has nobody to turn to, nobody to relate to, and worst of all, nobody to love her; which made being in America harder for her. In reality, a woman’s place in society was beneath those of men, and then being an Asian-American woman would direct her to the bottom of the food chain.

In a quick second though, things would change and she was a whole new person. This was possible in her fantasy world, one which she created in her minds eye and loved to be in. Imagine being two people at once; only one of them turned off and the other brought to life. That’s how kingston felt when she was in her fantasy world of being a warrior. She trained for 15 years to be the best she could be and impressed all who she met. She had the ability to give life; giving birth to a baby boy, and take life; executing many targets she had seen in the magical gourd.

As the author writes this, you can see just how juxtaposed the two worlds are and wish that Kingston lived a better life, or that the fantasy could become a reality. In her fantasy, she has a son, confidence, a killer army (literally), and a loving husband. She has such passion for going after men that had impressed her brother and father: “I watched the baron’s piggish face chew open-mouthed on the sacrificial pig. I plunged my hand into the gourd, making a grab for his thick throat…”(Kingston 45). She was so eager to destroy him and get her family members back.

Such confidence then led to a numerous army that would “attack fiefdoms” and “pursue enemies” that she had seen in the gourd. Kingston notes, “I inspired my army, and I fed them… We brought order where ever we went… I won over a goodly number of fighters… ” (Kingston 37). She practically had people bowing down to her, and for once in her life, she was loved, a wish she had had for so long. She realized that her “son was so delighted that the shiny general was his mother too” and a sense of accomplishment and honor was brought about her. (Kingston 45). Between this fictional life, and her reality, she was stuck in a rut.

Right off the bat, Kingston tells the reader that her American life has been such a disappointment” (Kingston 45). Being an Asian-American was no easy task. Kingston suffered through bias, and it came “to the point that as long as you ‘look’ Asian, you’re open to attack, regardless of which group you belong to… ” (Lindsey). The most interesting part of this chapter is the last few pages when Kingston gets back to talking about her fantasy life. She says, “I mustn’t feel bad that i haven’t done as well as the swordswoman did; after all, no bird called me, no wise old people tutored me. I have no magic beads, no water gourd sight…

My brain had momentarily lost it’s depth perception. I was that eager to find an unusual bird”(Kingston 49). In this last part, Kingston self-reflects on her fantasy and how badly she wants it. She feels like if she just looks hard enough for the signs; the bird, the clouds, the mountains, she’ll find her way to the old people’s home and fulfill her fantasy. As readers, we know this will never happen, which makes us feel sympathetic that her future will never be as appealing as she wants it to be. There are numerous examples of juxtaposition throughout the book but this chapter most likely held the bulk of them.

Maxine Kingston’s writing was filled with stories and unfortunate realities that made a reader understand what it was like to be so different now matter how much she did to blend in. The opposition between the two lives gave us an inside look of a culture’s myth brought to an imagination, and a reality that pain staked a girl to disliking a place that she lived. Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior. New York: Vintage International, 1976. Print. Lindsey, Robert. “Asian-Americans See Growing Bias. ” New York Times 10 09 1983, Special Edition n. pag. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. .

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To the Young Women of Malolos

The issues discussed in the famous letter of Rizal entitled, “To the Young Women of Malolos,” are the inequality between men and women, slavery done by the Spaniards because of ignorance, fraud religious beliefs brought by the friars, the role of mothers in the family, tyranny of some because of the cowardice and negligence on the part of others, unreligious acts of the friars towards the Filipinos, education not given to other Filipinos by the Spaniards, and lastly, the abuse of the Spaniards because of the hospitality of the Filipinos.

In this letter, Rizal addresses all kinds of women – mothers, wives, the unmarried, and expresses everything that he wishes them to keep in mind. Jose Rizal was greatly impressed by the fighting spirit that the young women of Malolos had shown. His letter is his own way of recognition for them as brave Filipinas who are no longer blinded by the fraud religious beliefs brought by the friars. In his letter, he expresses great joy and satisfaction over the battle they had fought.

Rizal also emphasizes in the letter his desire for women to be offered the same opportunities as those received by men in terms of education. Education is indeed important not just for men but as well as for women and everyone has the right to education. Under his letter he also mentioned about our own freedom as individual human beings that we must have our own judgment of what is right and wrong. Rizal stipulates a number of important points in this portion of his letter to the young women of Malolos.

The central idea here, however, is that whatever a mother shows to her children is what the children will become also. As the saying goes, a fruit would grow the same as of its tree. In his letter, Rizal enumerates the qualities Filipino mothers have to possess: Be a noble wife, rear her children in the service of the state – here Rizal gives reference to the women of Sparta who embody this quality, set standards of behavior for men around her.

Women are fragile and can be easily influenced because of ignorance and lacked of knowledge of her rights. The friars took advantage of the kindness and meekness of this youth and brag about it with its fellow Spaniards. If only the Filipinas were like the women of Spartan who have power over their men, maybe no one would dare to touched or harassed a woman.

Jose Rizal also points out to unmarried women that they should not be easily taken by appearances and looks, because these can be very deceiving. Instead, they hould take heed of men’s firmness of character and lofty ideas, which is indeed very true especially today; wherein most women were easily deceive by good looks of men not even knowing their true identity and their true self.

I’m a little bit disappointed and discourage though, because some would easily judge a book by its cover, without even knowing its contents yet and as for me, it doesn’t really matter if a guy is really good looking, what matters for me is his attitude and values as well as his weird principles in life I guess, and most especially the different kind of feeling that I would feel whenever we are with each other.

To sum it all, Rizal wanted to make his people open their eyes and to avoid ignorance of freedom. Ignorance is the cause of slavery during their time and this is what we must not let to happen again. He did not want its people to live without a religious belief but he just wants them apprehend not to be deceived by the exploitations done by the friars under their robes. The teachings made must be put into action not just in words.

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Discuss and/or compare the role of women in society in`Trifles`and `Death of salesman`

An American woman’s life in the early 1900s when one-act play “Trifles” was written by Susan Glaspell was a whole lot different than what it is today. During that time, women were expected to stay at home while their husbands go to work and earn a living for their families, a noble task which society deemed fit for men in as much as cleaning house, hanging clothes, cooking food, washing dishes, and taking care of children were noble tasks meant for women. Women were educated, but the education or semblance of which merely served as a superficial credential to make them more attractive potential mates.

Society was undoubtedly patriarchal, with wives’ submission to heir respective husbands’ taken both as the norm and the biblical good. (Mitchell 23) It was during this time that Glaspell wrote the play about a murder and that crime’s subsequent solution through a series of trifles. Even at the start of her play, Glaspell showed the disparity of social class between men and women. One example is the scene at the start of the play where the three male main characters enter the warm farmhouse first before the two women do despite the fact that it was freezing cold outside.

This signifies the priority that men assert of their needs over the needs of their women. It also signifies a sense of women being beholden to their men, the wives did not complain about the shabby treatment of their husbands of them in the scene, they considered it quite normal to wait until your husband enters a house before you yourself can do so. Another was one of the male characters constant mockeries of female concerns. That character, Mr. Hale, trivialized the many details of the tasks that women in that era were responsible for by using the words “women are used to worrying about trifles”. By trifles, Mr.

Hale meant the small, seemingly nonessential details that his wife and all other wives as can be concluded from his disposition are always fussing over. He complains that his and Mr. Peters’ wives worries about unkempt state, pots, bread, and other kitchen items scattered about, about Mrs. Wright’s preserves being frozen and cracked are of no significance to the problem at hand, which was the murder of Mr. Wright. Here we see that not only were women being expected to be obedient, to stay at home and do the chores, but they were being ridiculed by men for being careful and mindful of the very things that husbands expect their wives to do.

Mr. Hale never takes into consideration that it is his wife’s worries over the things that he considers as “Triffles” that lets him go home to a warm meal and a clean bed every single day, that gives him fresh, neatly ironed clothes every morning and not to mention a home cooked lunch. This mockery and ignorance show how little of a value society at that time actually placed on the tasks of a woman that it has expected of her. Another important detail that could be observed in the play was how women were indeed smarter than men gave them credit for.

The wives of the two main characters eventually solve the mystery of the murder where their husbands failed. The women do so through investigating the very same “trifles” that the men ridicule them for. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale found the quilting that Mrs. Wright was working on, and takes note that the sudden change in the quality of the stitching may connote that something had happened that upset Mrs. Wright. They found a broken bird cage and wondered if there was a bird, and then finally they found a small box upon looking for sewing supplies to take back to Mrs. Wright.

The small box contained a bird with its neck wrung. The women put the clues together and decide not to tell their respective husbands, this last part somewhat connoting their preference to deny their husbands solid proof regarding the murder of Mr. Wright to which Mrs. Wright stood accused. The play portrayed the men as blind to the clues that the women were able to find, this stressed the inequality between men and women even more, showing that although women could be just as smart as or even smarter than their male counterparts, their roles in society were still below those of their husbands’.

The final aspect of the play that is connected with women at that time was the portrayal of Mrs. Wright. From the discussions among the other characters it was apparent that Mrs. Wright lived a stressful existence under the rule of her husband. Her husband was described as a difficult man, and the character of Mrs. Wright was implied to have endured years of abuse because of it. This last portrayal concretizes the marginalization of women during those times.

It leaves to the viewers to connect the irony of how a woman who had been subjected to years of degradation from a man who supposedly vowed to love and cherish her is in danger of suffering one last injustice, to be held intrial for the murder of the very man who had drained the life out of her. Decades later since the first showing of “Trifles” in 1916, Arthur Miler wrote what would be later known as a classic of American Theater. “Death Of A Salesman” which was first shown in 1949 was not primarily about women, but about how one man’s delusion and desperation caused the degradation of his family and his dignity.

However, this man’s wife who was the main female character in the play showed very vivid portrayals of whether the concept of woman had evolved. Linda’s characterization in the play fares women no better than the women characters in “Triffles”. Linda Loman from “Death Of A Salesman” was yet another disheartened housewife who still kept fulfilling the usual tasks due to an American housewife. She is loving, caring, understanding and ever obedient to her husband, Willy Loman who never fails to tell her to “shut up” whenever she puts a word out of line.

Linda’s insights and intelligence are a lot more that Willy is characterized as having, but her unfaltering devotion towards him prevented her from using her wits to save her family because she knew that such an act would rob her husband of the glory that in that era made men, men. The scenes that involve private conversations with her sons showed Linda’s brilliance and common sense, a common sense that diminishes in scenes of Linda speaking with her husband wherein she plays stupid with her responses usually limited to “Yes Dear. ” or “what, Dear? ”. In conclusion, we say that both plays had feminist ideals embedded in them.

Both plays portrayed the injustice being done to women and how these women of the past coped with such injustice. The time between the releases of these two plays connotes the period when these literature were written as struggling times for women. These years marked the birthing of a generation of women who would finally wise up and begin to take their rightful place in society as men’s equals. The plays were evidence that some women already knew what was happening, and that these women were eager to spread the word of female liberalism which would later be known as feminism.

These plays exposed that the treatment of women as housebound cleaners, babysitters, and cooks while at the same time failing to give proper recognition for these tasks and the women who did them was unacceptable. (Mitchell 85) The play showcased a woman’s abilities and strengths despite living in a man’s world. It showed that a woman can and will exceed a man if she chooses to. It scolds the women who have not yet awakened by portraying characters that resemble them. The battered and abused who are the Mrs. Wrights, and the smart, loving and caring yet neglected, unappreciated and frustrated Linda Lohans.

These women represent those who cannot fight back, or those who think that what is being done to them is proper. These characters call out to those women and show them how pathetic they’ve become in an attempt to jolt them out of it and make them take a stand. American women have come a long way since these two pieces of literature; they have made countless others and are continuing to make them to date. They have gained much ground in their battle for rights and would do all that they can to push ever harder, reach ever higher, and make it ever clearer that no man has a right to make any woman feel that she is below him.

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Tacitus Germania and Women

Germania, written by the Roman Cornelius Tacitus in 98 A. D, is a historical work on the warlike Germanic tribes located north of the Danube and the Rhine rivers. Anthropology is the study of societies, cultures, and origins of human races. In Germania, Tacitus describes the inhabitants, customs, and society of these Germanic tribes giving valuable anthropological insight. Tacitus specifically describes the role women held in these early Germanic societies.

Germania is anthropologically insightful of Germanic women by showing the high regard the Germanic tribes held toward women; evidenced through the women’s influence on wars, their role in society, and the Germanic marriage customs. Cornelius Tacitus was born in 56 A. D in the area of southern Gaul. By the year 75 he lived in Rome training as an orator. A year later he married the daughter of the consul Julius Agricola. In later years he wrote a biography of Julius Agricola. He eventually took up a career in politics rising from senator all the way up to the consulship in 97.

After the consulship he continued with his political career as proconsul of Asia but began to write historical works as well. Some of Tacitus’ major works include Agricola written in 97-8, Germania written in 98, The Histories, recording Roman history from 69 to 96, and The Annals, recording the history from 14 to 68. Tacitus is known as one of the greatest historians and prose stylists who wrote in Latin. His works The Histories and The Annals are among the masterpieces of Latin literature. Little evidence exists of Tacitus later life or the date of his death. 1

Germania is split into 46 chapters or sections. Each one focuses on a different aspect of Germanic life and society. The book begins with a description of the geography of Germania with its boundaries of rivers, mountains, and the ocean. Tacitus then continues to describe the people themselves as a race “little affected by immigration” (37) because of their geography. The name ‘Germania’ came from the first people to cross the Rhine and defeat the Gauls. The inhabitants took the name Germani in honor of the conquerors and the terror they brought with them.

Tacitus gives descriptions of the Germani’s religion, warlike society, home life, government, and the specific Germanic tribes or groups. With regards to religion, the Germani have many gods. Their most important god is Mercury. The Germani were known to give human sacrifices to appease Mercury at times. Other gods such as Hercules and Mars merely required animal sacrifices. The Germani are a very warlike society. Tacitus describes in detail their national war song to the gods sung before and during battle with a deep throaty roar. In the words of Tacitus, “The Germani have no taste for peace” (41). They are a culture of war.

This warlike culture effects the home life and government of the Germani. Marriage is an important institution for the Germani and is highly revered. Tacitus cites that the women are in fact one of the men’s greatest motivations for success in war. Though their kings are chosen by noble birth, they choose leaders for their valor. Neither the leaders nor the kings, however, have absolute power. Tacitus expounds upon all these aspects of Germani society in great detail. To conclude Germania Tacitus describes the specific practices of more than 20 individual nations and tribes within the area of Germania.

The first evidence Germania gives of the Germani’s high regard for women is apparent through the women’s influence on the men during war. The women encouraged the men during war and had a great power to motivate the men. Tacitus explains how the women and children were the dearest possessions of the men and continues to say, “… to them he looks for his highest praise. The men take their wounds to their mothers and wives, who are not afraid of counting and examining the blows, and bring food and encouragement to those fighting” (38).

The women are taking a very active role in war through caring for the men. The men do not take this for granted, this is their greatest motivation. Tacitus explains more fully the women’s ability to motivate the men, “Tradition has it that armies wavering and even on the point of collapse have been restored by the steadfast pleas of the women, who bared their breasts and described how close they were to enslavement – a fate that the men fear more keenly for their women than for themselves” (38).

The women had such a strong power to motivate the men that they could restore the strength of a failing army. The Germani’s high regard of women is evident by the women’s ability to motivate and encourage the men during war. The thoughts and opinions of Germani women were regarded highly giving them a valuable role in society. Tacitus explains, “… they believe that there resides in women something holy and prophetic, and so do not scorn their advice or disregard their replies” (39).

Many societies, especially during this time, believed women to be incapable of intelligent reasoning. The Germani, however, believe women have something holy or prophetic within them. This caused the men to listen to the advice and opinions of the women rather than toss them aside as ignorant. This role of women, possessing something holy and sharing advice, shows a high regard for women in Germanic society. Lastly, the respect and honor shown to women through the Germanic marriage customs show a high regard for women.

Tacitus praises the Germani’s strict view of marriage. Tacitus describes their marriage customs, “They are almost unique among barbarians in being satisfied with one wife each… The dowry is brought not by wife to husband, but by husband to wife. Parents and kinsmen attend and approve the gifts, gifts not chosen to please a woman’s whim or gaily deck a young bride, but oxen, a horse with reins, a shield with spear and sword” (43). By each man taking one woman for life the Germani demonstrate a value of women as more than property.

The most unique and remarkable custom though regards the dowry. In most cultures the dowry is the gifts and inheritance the bride has to offer the groom. With the Germani, however, this is reversed. Instead the man must bring a dowry to offer the bride. The dowry is not made up of frivolous items for the bride to enjoy but practical items for living. This custom shows the brides worth and honor and demonstrates the Germani’s view of women as being valuable and intelligent. The women of Germania are not pushed aside or placed at the bottom of Germanic society.

Instead, they motivate the men in war renewing their strength when they are weary. The men value the women enough to place their safety above their lives in battle. The Germani believe the women to have something holy within them, so the men listen to them and do not disregard there advice. Finally, the men do not trade women as possessions but honor them with a dowry and stay true to one woman in marriage. These anthropological insights of Germanic women described in Germania show the Germanic people held women in high regard in their culture and society.

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