Gender Case
Essay by SOCstudent • November 27, 2012 • Essay • 736 Words (3 Pages) • 1,272 Views
What is Intersectionality?Intersectionality, the fact that gender is not an isolated fact about us, but instead intersects with our other identities (Wade p.2) In my understanding, Intersectionality is our ethnicity, social class, occupation, culture, religion etc. it's a combination of all these things that also come from family background that identifies us. All of us try our best to manage these "expectations", opportunities, and constraints in ways that allows us to assert a socially valued identity. What are gender strategies? "Finding a way of doing gender that works for us as unique individuals who are also shaped by other parts of our identity and the realities of our lives is called gender strategy(Wade p.2) We attempt to create an identity that demonstrates our personality and that is also consistent with our moral beliefs, and adapts to our real life. Our lives and opportunities are created by where we grew up and the resources our family has. Children and adults in families with higher incomes have more resources than others to manage their lives and match their ideals. Many middle and upper-class families have more and better opportunities and options, compared to many more poor and working class families who have less opportunities in education and employment to make their lives better. "These variables-economic class and place of residence-intersect with gender, making certain strategies more available to some than others"(Wade p.3) Many men with high salary and high-status careers or job positions, spend most of their life and time in their careers and identify strongly with their job. There are also wealthy married women who may refuse the house labors and create their own Career Women Strategy. (Wade p.3) In a marriage, if both, the wife and husband have a really good income they can afford to hire people to do the things for them like a housekeeper, nanny, gardener etc. But if the husband loses his job and he's the bread winner, he loses his "identity". Like in the article "When you get laid off Its Like if you lose a Part of yourself", it mentions that in the third phase, inertia deepens into depression, fed on by feelings of identity loss, inadequacy, hopelessness, a lack of self-confidence, and general failure of self-esteem. H e's tense, irritable, and feels increasingly alienated and isolated from both social and personal relationships". But for most women, identity is a multi-faceted, which means that the loss of a job isn't equivalent to the loss of self (Rubin). I guess when a woman losing their job is just losing a part of themselves, because they are still a wife and mother and "work" comes along with it. For a man, however, work is likely to be connected to the core of self. Going to work isn't just what he does; it's deeply linked to who he is (Rubin). Our gender strategies are somewhat affected by our own personalities and
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