Women's Health
Jenna Bell
1. Gender roles are socially constructed in the manner that society and culture create them. Whatever society or one’s culture or religion says the roles of women and men are, are what is appropriate behavior for that specific gender. In America today, women fought for our rights and now there is an expectation from American society that women should work and make their own livings, without relying on men. However, in many other parts of the world, specifically religiously intolerant areas and places located in developing countries that have not had the women’s rights movement that Americans have had, believe that men are the money makers and women, the house keepers. These are just a few, general examples of socially constructed gender roles. 2.
Gendercide is the systematic killing of members of a specific sex. The word refers to the rising problem occurring in countries like China where girl babies are said to be “useless” and where it is said that “you cannot get by without a son.” It came along with China’s one-child only policy. It is a certain type of pressure caused by gender disparities throughout cultures across the world. Many think of gendercide as an issue that is caused by “backward thinking” or an old-fashioned outlook. The implications of gendercide are multiple. One of the implications is that there is a major sex ratio difference. In China specifically, there is a surplus of bachelors, which causes issues including human trafficking and bride-abduction. There used to be a stable ratio of boys born to girls, which was between 103-106 boys to every 100 girls. Now, those numbers have changed, which is only possible through human intervention. Thinking of gendercide, most tend to immediately look at China’s one-child only policy, but it is common in other countries as well, including India where like China, it is an issue containing large regional disparities. Polls show that there is still a large “son preference” in
1. Gender roles are socially constructed in the manner that society and culture create them. Whatever society or one’s culture or religion says the roles of women and men are, are what is appropriate behavior for that specific gender. In America today, women fought for our rights and now there is an expectation from American society that women should work and make their own livings, without relying on men. However, in many other parts of the world, specifically religiously intolerant areas and places located in developing countries that have not had the women’s rights movement that Americans have had, believe that men are the money makers and women, the house keepers. These are just a few, general examples of socially constructed gender roles. 2.
Gendercide is the systematic killing of members of a specific sex. The word refers to the rising problem occurring in countries like China where girl babies are said to be “useless” and where it is said that “you cannot get by without a son.” It came along with China’s one-child only policy. It is a certain type of pressure caused by gender disparities throughout cultures across the world. Many think of gendercide as an issue that is caused by “backward thinking” or an old-fashioned outlook. The implications of gendercide are multiple. One of the implications is that there is a major sex ratio difference. In China specifically, there is a surplus of bachelors, which causes issues including human trafficking and bride-abduction. There used to be a stable ratio of boys born to girls, which was between 103-106 boys to every 100 girls. Now, those numbers have changed, which is only possible through human intervention. Thinking of gendercide, most tend to immediately look at China’s one-child only policy, but it is common in other countries as well, including India where like China, it is an issue containing large regional disparities. Polls show that there is still a large “son preference” in