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Gender Roles: Brazil, the Qing Dynasty and Senegal

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Gender Roles: Brazil, the Qing Dynasty and Senegal
Gregory Andrade

Gender Roles: Brazil, the Qing Dynasty and Senegal

AEGL 291
Dr. Claxon
04/11/2011

On my honor as a University of South Carolina Aiken student, I have complemented my work according to the principle of Academic Integrity. I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this assignment. _______________________________________
The purpose of this research paper is to analyze the role women and men play in certain societies. First, a novel by a Chinese novel, Anchee Min, is analyzed. The novel, Empress Orchid, is about the last emperor of China, Tung Chih. During the time in the Forbidden City, there was an obvious gap between males and females – the gender roles were significantly different. Another novel will then be introduced, Scarlet Song written by Mariama Ba. This book tells a love story about a Senegalese man and French woman. The different background of each of the lovers prevents a happy relationship and causes a tragedy. Finally, in order to contrast the gender roles of both novels to recent events and contemporary culture, the current gender roles in my native Brazil will be talked about in this research paper.
“Newly released data from China’s 1990 census support previous suspicions that 5 percent of all infant girls born in China are unaccounted for. It is not clear what has happened to them. Are they killed at birth, drowned in a bucket of water by the midwife, on instructions from parents who want a son rather than a daughter? Or are they given up for adoption? Or perhaps they are raised secretly to evade the one-child policy? Some evidence suggests a combination of these factors accounts for the missing girls, although officials usually insist that very few are killed” (Women’s International Network News). This is the current situation in China, the most populated country in the world. With more than one billion inhabitants, the government has installed a one-child policy to stop overpopulation from damaging



Cited: Ba, Mariama. Scarlet Song. Trans. Dorothy S Blair: Longman, 2007. Print. Barlow, Rebecca, and Shahram Akbarzadeh. "Women 's rights in the muslim world: reform or reconstruction?." Third World Quarterly 27.8 (2006): 1481-1494. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. Fuentes, Lisa. "De Te Fabula Narratur: Women and the making of democracy in Latin America." Journal of Interamerican Studies & World Affairs 32.3 (1990): 259. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. Johnson, RW. "The Rise of Jacob Zuma; Polygamist, ‘Zulu Peasant’ and President in Waiting." The Sunday Times 5 Apr. 2009. Print. Min, Anchee. Empress Orchid: Mariner Book, 2005. Print Riley, Nancy E. "American adoptions of Chinese girls: The socio-political matrices of individual decisions." Women 's Studies International Forum 20.1 (1997): 87. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. "Where are the missing Chinese girls?." Women 's International Network News 17.3 (1991): 60. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 Mar. 2011. Ward, Claire. "HER OWN WOMAN." Maclean 's 123.48/49 (2010): 88-89. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 Mar. 2011

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