Blog # 2

Blog # 2
Section A
1. Patriarchy is the reason why women have suffered throughout history. It is the opposite of matriarchy, which we rarely see. Matriarchy means that a woman is in charge of her household. Most societies around the world practice patriarchy, where the man has all the power, control, and say over the women. (From essortment.com)

2. This document is, simply, about the differences between men and women. It also shares with us that men and women are not equal and should never be equal because of their differences in manners, temper, and responsibilities.

3. Rousseau justifies the gender inequality with nature. He states, “This inequality is not a human institution—or, at least, it is the work not of prejudice but of reason. It is up to the sex that nature has changed with the bearing of children to be responsible for them to the other sex”. Rousseau points the finger at nature for making an unequal society between man and woman. Nature purposely made each gender, making specific parts for each so that later they can use those parts to just their labors and responsibilities.

4. Personally, I believe Rousseau’s arguments are perfectly valid. If this world was intended to be completely equal without inequality between men and women then the higher power that created us would have done so in a different way. But I also believe that a lot of prejudice comes from attitude. If one harbors the attitude of prejudice then that is what he/she will produce.


Section B
5. Yes, there are many. First and foremost Native American women all experienced a significant about of change physically, emotionally, and geographically. Their sexuality was exploited by European and Spaniard men. Their villages, friends, and families were often taken from them, or vice versa. They may have been taken back to Europe or Spain forcefully to be used as slaves. During the invasions of newcomers, though, Native American women at times did gain some independence. Many Native Americans married Englishmen to better their own villages. And some women married multiple husbands such as Mary Musgrove Matthews Bosonworth who married three white Georgians and was mixed blood. With her husbands, she worked for both sides, her original tribe and the White settlers for a better community (14).

6. Large numbers of women who came to America to seek opportunities not available in England found themselves signing a legal contract that bounded them as slaves. The Virginia Company used propaganda to attract women in their need for the opposite sex. Women were treated with disrespect and were often beaten and raped. If they became pregnant they were beaten more and fined. These practices were the starting point for what would later happen to African slaves in the late 1600’s. Planters found that African slaves were easy to acquire and use. Upper-class white women used slaves for household chores making their load easier and freeing up a lot of useful time. African women as well as men were forced to work in fields and tend to exhausting physical labor and the law deemed no difference between men and women. The beginning of indentured servitude for white females was no end for the slavery of Africans.

7. Besides regional differences, religious differences were the most significant and set the ways for laws and social conducts. The Puritan settlers consisted of families whereas the Chesapeake colonists were predominantly male. New Englanders “has high and rising rates of childbirth… and long marriages, both of which contrasted with the Chesapeake” (25). Puritans religious behaviors also shaped their legal foundations. They saw marriage not as a religious sacrament, but as a civil contract (25) and so were allowed to divorce and remarry. Other religions only permitted women to remarry upon the death of their spouse. Married women had few legal rights in the Chesapeake, Carolinas, and Massachusetts colonies and Massachusetts followed the principle of femme covert. Femme covert was the idea that “married women could not sue or be sued, hold public office, or vote; their husbands had legal control over their property, children, and even their bodies” (17). Most of the differences between European women colonist stem from their religious backgrounds, first and foremost.

Blog One

This first blog entry is all about me. Tyler Austin. Even though my name is Tyler, please do not assume I am male. I am a girl and I do love my name. I am a fun loving blonde who works as a teacher's aide in an amazing pre-school. I love working with the children, but do not want to pursue a career in child development. What I really want to do is work in PR and Marketing. I am currently in my second year at Glendale Community College and plan on finishing with my AA after then Fall 2008 semester. I want to transfer to CSU Northridge by the Spring of 2009. I started college three days before I actually graduated high school. Because I work at a pre-school I has forced to take six units of child development so I began those the summer of 2006. So I had no Summer break until the end of July. I did really well my first Summer at GCC and thought college would be a breeze, until I started my Fall semester. Working full time and going to school full time was really tough on me. But I managed to get through the past two years.
I would love to always work in groups and teams, but doing so is not as easy as it may seem sometimes. Some people are not as committed as you may be and that makes the work you have to do a lot harder. I always put forth my greatest effort when working in groups. I make time to meet with other team members and try to distribute the work evenly. But again, others see group projects as a chance to let other people do their work. What actually motivates me to do my best is my boyfriend. Silly as it may seem. He ends up with straight A's almost every semester and he makes it look easy. For me though, I have to work really hard and study a lot. So he motivates me to do the best I can to get the best grade possible. On the other hand though, I can be really unmotivated and lazy and procrastinate a lot.
To keep me on track and on schedule I use a day planner. Every assignment is written in, all my appointments, class times, babysitting dates, work schedules, birthdays etc. Usually I will also print out a monthly calendar and write in specific assignments, especially for online class, so not to confuse them with other deadlines. I normally set aside Sundays and Saturdays for school work that not does have to be turned in previously. I like to get my work done ahead of schedule.