Feminists, how is it that all major civilizations follow gender roles?

Question

Is it a coincidence? Did a group of angry men just manage to influence the entire planet despite the advent of global transportation? Or is it due to nature?

Answer 1

Gender roles are societal and culture based and always have been.  That does not make it right as we learned from societies such as the Taliban.

We live in a free society, where all people regardless of race, religion, size, and s*x should be free to choose the role that they are best suited for and makes them happy.

Answer 2

No, it's not  a coincidence.  Gender roles are influenced by our physiological natures.  Men evolved as hunters and women as gatherers because you can't hunt very easily while weighted down by a baby or young child.  Men tend to be more likely to seek out high-status roles, which is why all societies,no matter how varied they are in other ways, tend to have males in leadership roles.

Answer 3

if you lived in England you would know what you are saying is wrong. a series has just finished on tv called 'tribal wives'. this looked at various tribes around the world. there were 2 where the women did all the hunting, wood chopping ad physical labour.

when the men were asked to do it they were very insulted. within their culture men never did hunnting, chopping, fetching of heavy items.

in answer to who were the better hunter, the women were as the men had never one it before. one man tried to chop wood and couldnt do it properly and all the women were laughing at him. they even said that you cant expect a man to do these things, he would be no good. its all cultural opinion by individuals societies.

Answer 4

Gender roles vary from culture to culture and over time. Even now, in an age of global access to information, the gender roles vary. Thinking that there is a universal female experience is the arena of second-wave feminism, which tended to ignore lower-class women and women of color.

in fact, the point that gender roles vary from culture to culture, and almost always have, is a sign that specific gender roles are dictated by a specific culture and are not universal and therefore, not human nature. They change depending on location, access to resources, and what is required to allow the species to survive.

In our current structure, the gender roles that you are probably speaking of are not only antiquated, but no longer useful for the survival of our species.

Answer 5

"Did a group of angry men just manage to influence the entire planet despite the advent of global transportation?"

Yes, it was called the Dark Ages and the Inquisition. I assume you've heard of them?

Answer 6

People with male energy always lead. Some women have male energy and are what you would call a feminist/L*****n woman. These women were encouraged by the Veda to work alongside men and married to a feminine woman. Feminsist are natural. But most woman do not work like this. Most women want to have family time, a caring husband and children, and make sure that evryone is satisfied with his life.

Answer 7

Humans are like brand new computers running on really outdated software. I think a lot of gender roles came out of necessity during evolution. But as we have progressed, gender roles have become unnecessary and yet we still follow them because we can't adapt as well as we'd like to think. All humans went through a stage where survival was very difficult and we had to stick to the roles we are best at. Now that we have evolved far from being cave dwellers hunting with spears and praying to rain clouds, we should be able to drop these old constrictions, but it's hard to change such anciennt behaviour.

Answer 8

Since men generally are stronger and have greater endurance they would typically be the protectors and hunter gatherers. The women requires this protection because their job was the nesting and having babies. Seems like no social ideology can change these facts so History proves time and again that natures plan will always win in the end.

Answer 9

I agree. The other respondents are not familiar with history. Rome, Greece, Babylon, Persian, Ming, Aztec, Mayan, Inca. The list goes on and on. The great Empires and civilizations of man kind have always had gender roles.  

Answer 10

Culture influences behavior but biology drives and often forces behavior.  Women are built to give birth, breastfeed, carry children (hips), and even pick up the sound of their cries more easily than men.  

The historical pattern of gender roles albeit not identical in every civilization are very similar, except some odd tribe here or there.

Answer 11

"Feminists, how is it that all major civilizations follow gender roles?"

Yes, but they all follow DIFFERENT gender roles from one another, from culture to culture. In some tribal parts of Africa, women do the hunting, for example. Which means that gender roles are culturally constructed, NOT fixed.  

Answer 12

It's very simple. Women have babies. Babies mean an enormous commitment of time and resources, not to mention personal risk. Civilization needed to be set up so that the population would be stable and children would be cared for, especially given men's s*x drives (and the fact that men can just walk away from s*x, whereas women can't), STD rates, birth mortality rates, etc. Women essentially need to be supported through pregnancy and beyond, and as such, by simple material fact, are dependent upon men -- as men are upon women for children, but the difference is, women have this disadvantage and men typically have stronger bodies.

Nature really didn't stack things in women's favor. Note, though, that this is really just in "civilized" cultures. In hunting and gathering societies, roles are much more equitable and fair. See "The Invisible s*x," which outlines how the "men hunters, women caregivers" thing was mythologized in the 1800s to reinforced established gender roles.

It's a logical fallacy to assume that this means there is anything deeply psychological about gender roles. It's definitely a fallacy to assume that women are less capable or intelligent because they have babies. Certainly there must be -some- psychological component, but I think women have proven time and time again -- now that technology allows them to control when, where, and how they get pregnant, as well as allows them to amass resources for themselves without a male's help necessarily -- that they are simply not psychologically restricted to this.

It's also a fallacy to assume that men are inherently more evil or domineering than women. If women had the stronger bodies and men were disabled for 9 months at a time, it's likely that men would have been just as oppressed. It's human nature to take advantage of someone else.

In conclusion, I respect women who want children, but I can say on pain of chinese water torture I just don't want kids. At all. If I have them it won't be on basis of instinct because I just don't feel any desire for it. I also want to study philosophy and literature and science, make great art, traverse the Andes, and kick some *** at martial arts. The end.  

Answer 13

They usually experimented when they peaked and it ultimately lead to chaos. Only when a society is comfortable and organised can roles be interchanged. A typical Andalusian Islamic song will have the female as the lead and the male, submissive and distant, they were also very hedonistic at the time. They lost everything in a couple of generations.

We have social welfare, complex divorce laws and family planning to slow our decent, but is is happening, see USA and United Kingdom for examples. No offence intended to our British or American members.

Last days of Rome, make hay.

I think you would too Sam.

Answer 14

Some civilisations were matriarchal or gave both sexes equal status and power until they were invaded by Christian Europeans, who thought this was against nature and forced them to change.

"Do you really think a woman is as fast and powerful as a man? Who would make a better hunter--man or woman?"

One: The world's best male runners and weight lifters can probably outdo their female counterparts. That doesn't mean men are always stronger and faster, or that women can't be strong and fast *enough* to hunt or fight well.

Two: Why does it matter? There are places where hunting is considered a woman's job, regardless of which s*x would do it better. (And there's no reason to assume that all activities must be done by either men OR women.)

Answer 15

Men wrote the history books so they are telling the story.  But obviously it's not always the case as in Tracey's answer.  I think that religion played a huge part in putting women in a subservient role.

Answer 16

As Tracey has pointed out, gender roles are not constant throughout the world and human history. They vary, depending on circumstances and culture. For example, I think we could learn a lot from these people, even with their own glass ceiling:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/j...

Pregnancy and childbirth have obviously imposed limitations on women throughout history. In the modern age this is not as big of an issue. So there really is no need for gender roles.

Besides most ancient civilisations were barbaric and founded on slavery and oppression. Why on earth would we aspire to model ourselves on them? Should we reintroduce slavery, just because other civilisations had slaves?

I think I would make a very good hunter :-)

Answer 17

Ortner explains all civilization tent to admire culture in oposition to nature, since women have more obvious natural process (menstruation, pregnancy, and so on), women is seen as "less human", that's why we have to deconstruct our view over women.

By the way, we have not hunter anymore, neanderthal era, have ended.