To successfully complete this week's assignments, read the following chapters from the text, Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective:
Chapter 4 - Equality and inequality: The Sexual Division of Labor and Gender Stratification
Chapter 5 - The Cultural Construction of Gender and Personhood
DQ 1
Gender Egalitarianism in the Vanatinal
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Courtney Martin talk about feminism from a Nigerian and American perspective. Both women focus on reclaiming the term, "feminism," and defining it for themselves.
Considering the two perspectives and experiences from your own life how would you define feminism?
How is the idea of gender egalitarianism, such as the Vanatinai ideology presented in Chapter 4 of Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective, similar to or different than the concept of feminism?
DQ 2
Gender Performativity and the Cultural Regulation of Gender
Philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler's queer theory is based on the central concept that gender is real only to the extent that it is performed.
In the video, Butler states that we act, speak, and talk in ways that form impressions on what it is to be a man or be a woman. She also asserts that gender norms are established in a society through these actions and are policed through various social pressures.
Using examples from Chapter 5 of Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective, analyze the ways in which culture defines and regulates gender. In your response, consider the extent to which social pressure is used to conform to gender expectations.