A Global Survey on the Perceptions and Impact of Gender Inequality

By Isabella Fernandez

For centuries, women have fought for equality and against oppression, and although great strides have been made, such as the right to vote and equal access to education, women are still disproportionately affected by all forms of violence and discrimination in every aspect of their life. The purpose of this Neatline exhibit is to expose the misogynistic and one dimensional view of women, seen in "Female Sexuality" by Sigmund Freud and "Woman" by Fu Hsüan, and instead promote the complexity and versatility of womanhood, as seen in "Poem 132" by Sappho, "Los Empeños de Una Casa" by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and "Home Fire" by Kamila Shamsie. 

From a very young age, people of all genders are exposed to stereotypes that encourage toxic masculinity and anti-women concepts. In other words, we are exposed to an absurd amount of nomalized sexism. We are told that boys should never cry and that girls must always look pretty. Throughout history, people have used the 'It's by nature' card in order to push submissivess within certain communities. This had led men in countless patriarchal societies to claim that women are inferior to them 'by nature'. While it is common for some people to believe that gender roles are innate, I would like to make the argument that there is nothing natural about gender roles; it is socially constructed, made up, conveniently practiced, and cultivated. Throughout the ages, we have been forced to learn about these concepts through books, movies, folklore, stories, norms, and media, and we begin to believe what is being put forth. 

My Neatline exhibit will be a review of the existing literature into related areas on the perception of women: gender differences and gender stereotyping. A background on each author and the manner in which the text influenced society is also provided. The texts are organized chronologically, but, please feel free to explore as you see fit. 

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Works Cited

Becker, Mary. “Patriarchy and Inequality: Towards a Substantive Feminism” University of Chicago Legal Forum, vol. 1999, iss. 1, article 3. https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1266&context=uclf

Boyle, Catherine. “Los Empeños de Una Casa by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Translation, Cultural Transmission, and Staging” Forum for Modern Language Studies, vol. 35, issue 3, July 1999, pg. 227-237, https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/XXXV.3.227

Chambers, Claire. “Sound and Fury: Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire.” The Massachusetts Review, vol. 59, issue. 2.  https://massreview.org/sites/default/files/03_59.2Chambers.pdf

Dubey, Divya. “Home Fire Has a Darker View of World, We Live in Such Times: Kamila Shamsie.” India Today, 19 Aug. 2017, https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/leisure/story/20170828-kamila-shamie-home-fire-author-book-review-1030160-2017-08-19. 

Ebrey, Patricia. “Women in Traditional China.” Asia Society, https://asiasociety.org/education/women-traditional-china. 

Freeman, Philip. Searching for Sappho. New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 2016. 

Freud, Sigmund. “Female Sexuality” The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, edited by James Strachey, vol. 21, pgs. 221-244. https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Freud_SE_Female_Sexuality_complete.pdf

Friedman, Edward. “Los Empeños de Una Casa: Sign as Woman” Romance Notes, 1999, vol. 31, no. 3, pgs. 197-203, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/43802644.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A161ffb9b7b502ac54ad8b32ca17ed5eb

Holland, Jack. Misogyny: The World’s Oldest Prejudice. London, Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2006. 

Hsüan, Fu. “Woman” A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems, Alfred A. Knopf, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Woman_(Fu_Xuan)

Irigaray, Luce. This Sex Which Is Not One. Translated by Catherine Porter and Carolyn Burke, Cornell University Press, 1985, New York. http://kunsthallezurich.ch/sites/default/files/downloads/irigaray-this-sex-which-is-not-one.pdf

Juana Inés de la Cruz, Sor. “Los Empeños De Una Casa / Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz.” Biblioteca Virtual Miguel De Cervantes, http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/los-empenos-de-una-casa--0/html/07a80f4a-6a7d-4029-8fd5-5a0017ec6fb6_2.html.

Katz, Marilyn A. “Sappho and Her Sisters: Women in Ancient Greece.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society, vol. 25, no. 2, Winter 2000, p. 505. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1086/495449.

Lehmann, Christine. “Women Psychiatrists Still Battle Freud's View of Sexes.” Psychiatric News, 20 July 2001, https://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/pn.36.14.0009.

Nathan, Sharon G. “Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Penis Envy.” Psychiatry: Interpersonal & Biological Processes, vol. 44, no. 1, 1981, pp. 39–44. https://scu-illiad-oclc-org.libproxy.scu.edu/illiad/sta/illiad.dll?Action=10&Form=75&Value=184068

Sasso, Lauryn, et al. “Theater Study Guide: House of Desires.” UMASS Amherst. https://www.umass.edu/theater/sites/default/files/assets/theater/theater-studyguidehouseofdesires.pdf. 

Shamsie, Kamila. Home Fire. New York, Riverhead Books, 2017.