Ashley's Blog #3

In the article of “Global Women,” it is clear that the idea of gender roles is quite prominent. There have always been separations of labor due to gender divisions, but this article makes an interesting point. My family never hired a nanny for me, my mother spent her time raising me while my father was at work. It was my mother’s job to take care of me and had my mother been at work all day while my dad stayed home and looked after me, my family would have been thought of in a peculiar manner, as my parents gender roles would be backwards. However, many of my friends were always with their nannies or housekeepers as their mothers had to work. This articles plays upon the fact that when women leave their roles as the caretaker of the home and children to have a profession, there is a role that needs to be filled. However, it is not automatic that the other person in the marriage, the husband, would take over the housekeeping and child rearing. These things are seen as feminine roles and jobs defined for a woman. Therefore, the use of nannies by many families seems completely normal and the only option as it is not a man’s job o look after the children. If the mother herself cannot be there to fulfill this role, another woman must be called in to take over and do the job the mother should be doing. The father, however, is defined to have the gender role as the bread-winner, not the bread-maker.

            In regards to the article “Age, Race, Class, and Sex,” stereotypes of different people are discussed. Stereotypes are something that society will never be able to escape, so people should learn to deal with them efficiently. When the article states that colored women earn the lowest wages, one must take a step back and analyze this. Yes, this may be the case and yes many colored women may suffer greatly in the work force. However, someone’s race is not the final say in how they end up. Let’s take a look at Oprah, has her race inhibited her? Perhaps she may have struggled in her past due to predudiced people, but look at her now. She is one of the most successful people in American and her opinion is respected greatly by the American people. Yes, as a whole, women of her race may not be as successful as her, but people must realize that, despite the stereotypes, success is possible. Even though the picture we looked at in class poked fun of Obama, one cannot deny that “black” really is in the “white” as Obama is in the White House. People can may all the stereotypical comments they like, and some very well may be true, but people cannot let those stereotypes define them and inhibit them from becoming successful people. Rather than focusing on age, race, class, and sex, we should focus on education, morals, diligence, and drive.

As for situated knowledge, I feel that although it is inhibiting as to how clearly we all see the world, it is necessary to create individual people. No matter what, everyone learns through their environments and cannot escape situated knowledge. We all learn through the lens such as where we are from, where we grew up, and how our families interacted with us. Because of this, we are all different people and all have differing opinions which makes the world more enriched with various types of people. Situated knowledge can indeed heighten prejudices and close-mindedness due to how sheltered someone’s lifestyle is, but without situation knowledge, most people would fit one standard stereotype, which would be detrimental to the world than people who see the world unclearly due to their situated knowledge.