Week Twelve - The Domestic Division of Labor

On my chart, I saw that my mother did most of the different chores. My father did some too, but they were the ones that required more manual labor like car maintenance, mowing the lawn, shoveling the snow. However, he did help after dinner with cleaning the dishes.


My mother did most chores though. She packed the lunches, cooked the dinner, and picked up and dropped off the kids at school. My mother was more of a housewife. In a lot of my friends family's, their mom's worked so the kids did most of the chores. My mother was at home all day, she cleaned frequently so by the time my siblings and I got home from school everything was already done. The laundry was already folded all we had to do was put it in our drawers. The presents were already bought and packaged ready for the birthday party.


My mother didn't have us start doing more things until we got into high school. When I was a freshman, I remember her teaching me how to work the washing machine and showing me where the vacuum was located.  My brother was out of college and my sister just starting, when I started high school. By the time I was in high school, my mother had picked up a preschool teacher job that she went to 4 times a week. She was still home by the time I got home, but my clothes were left for me to clean and my lunch was left for me to pack.

Week Eleven - World Religions

I don't think that the world will ever fully secularize. There are too many people who feel strongly towards their religion and even though there are many people against religion or who feel it just shouldn't be so publicized as it is, those people will never fully squash. At the same time religion will never take over the world like it used. In this day and age, many people are against believing in something that they either don't want to believe in or that they feel they are forced to believe in. Since the beginning of time people chose religion because it answered their questions. Why it rained? Why their son died? But now, because of modern technology, people don't have to use religion so much as a crutch anymore. 

I believe that a lot of people, in our country specifically, are religious but at the same time many are not. Personally, I don't think religion should be in the government. Facing the issues of, lets say, abortion many people feel that it is wrong. Others feel it isn't a big deal. I think that issues like that, the ones that are based off of religious beliefs should be the person that if affects choice. Whether that person is religious or non it is their choice to do what they want. They shouldn't have a group of people telling them what they can and can't do with their body. 


People don't like to be told what to do. We saw it with the different English kingdoms, when people broke away from their religion to start a new one. If people don't think something is fair or if they believe that they are being trapped by their religion they will either find a new religion, or stop believing all together.

Week Nine - Study of Gender

"Gender refers to the personal traits and social position that members of a society attach to being male and female. Gender involves hierarchy, leading sociologists to talk of gender stratification, the unequal distribution of wealth, power and privilege between men and women."


Sexism has always been a normal thing. The mail carrier was always called a mailman and the flight attendants always stewardesses. To my grandmother, this was never an offending thing. When she was little she learned how to cook and clean, mend clothes and watch after the children. However, when she grew up she went to work but after being married for a few years she had my mother and went to stay in the home like a she had learned a wife should do. 


I understand many women like to work, and because they are women should not affect whether they get the job or how much they are paid. Women can and do work just as hard, if not harder, then men. I knew a woman who had moved here from Russia during 1940's. She had come here to better her life. She had an education from Russia in architecture. When she applied for a job, because they did not know she was a woman they hired her only looking at her resume and the fact that she was top of her class. When she came into work the boss was slightly stunned she was a woman, but did not dismiss her. She told me that for the first few months she worked there she didn't ask a single question. Until she proved to her boss that she was worthy of her job did she finally feel she could converse with her co-workers in a way that was more social. She proved that just because she was a woman doesn't mean she can't work the same as a man. 

Week Ten - A Tale of Two Families

While reading about Byron Greens and Max Holland, I thought about my own life. My father always said that we were poor, but compared to by boyfriend whose family lived in Ohio and barely had enough money to feed their children dinner, my family is well off. My father has had enough money to put 2 children through college and only now is having to take out loans to out me through college. 


I believe that because I am Caucasian, I have had a better chance at getting into good schools and living in a good neighborhood. I don't, however, think its fair. I coasted through high school and didn't have to work while I've been studying. I only now have been hired at the mall because I want to move out of my father's home sooner. 


I know that other races have a harder time, especially in school if they don't have the support from the school and their family, whether it be because there aren't enough teachers or because their parent(s) work full time or work 2 jobs. 


This has to change though. I shouldn't be privileged because of the color of my skin. 

Week Eight - Why We Should Care About Global Inequality

Global inequality, we think, may not affect us personally but it does.


Where each country falls on the global scale all depends on who has the power and the money. The countries with less power money emit less pollution but might produce more brilliant minds. That same country, however, may be deep in poverty and thus have a negative affect on the global scale.


Global inequality affects all of us everyday when we buy things from the store or just breathe the air. Countries with money generally put out more pollution, but that doesn't mean the poorer countries are not affected by that pollution. Just because we do not see the pollution our country puts out, doesn't mean it doesn't affect every other country in the world.