Reading Comprehension Check

1. What is the difference between the terms sex and gender?

2. How are men and women represented in history? What is a gender stereotype?

3. How did early philosophers portray genders? Are their views of the problem actual nowadays?

4. Do you agree with the religious view of the relationship between the opposite genders? Why?

5. Why were the concepts of masculinity and femininity developed? What do you think about proportional representation of genders in government?

6. Can you prove that women and men have differing views of the same situation? Why?

Assignments

1. Explain the terms: masculinity, femininity, preconceptions, status, to haunt, intimacy, independence, to proliferate, dimension, to point up, dominance, deformity, to reject, inferior, to expand upon.

12. Discuss the following:

1. Is gender equality possible? Is gender equality an “eternal problem”?

2. Who is responsible for violence against women and how to stop it?

3. Have you ever been discriminated against on the basis of your sex? What was the result?

4. What are some of the gender problems in this country? In the West? In the East?

UNIT 5

Family Life and Sex Roles

Text 1. The American Family

M.Christopher

Belonging to a family is one bond almost everyone in the world shares, but family patterns vary from country to country. In some countries, for example, the grandparents are the family leaders. In other countries, many families live and work together as one on community farms. What are families like in the United States?

Family Patterns

The United States has many different types of families. While most American families are traditional, comprising a father, a mother and one or more children. 22 per cent of all American families in 1988 were headed by one parent, usually a woman. In a few families in the United States, there are no children. These childless couples may believe that they would not make good parents, they may want freedom from the responsibilities of children; or, perhaps, they are not physically able to have children. Other families in the United States have one adult who is a stepparent. A stepmother or stepfather is a person who joins a family by marrying a father or mother.

Americans tolerate and accept these different types of families. In the United States, people have the right to privacy and Americans do not believe in telling other Americans what type of family group they must belong to. They respect each other’s choices regarding family groups.

Families are very important to Americans. One sign that this is true is that Americans show great concern about the family as an institution. Many Americans believe there are too many divorces. They worry that teenagers are not obeying their parents. They are concerned about whether working women can properly care for their children. They also worry that too many families live in poverty. In one nation-wide survey, about 80 per cent of the Americans polled said the American family is in trouble. At the same time, when these people were asked about their own families, they were much more hopeful. Most said they are happy with their home life.

How can Americans be happy with their individual families but worried about families in general? Newspaper, motion pictures and television shows in the United States highlight difficulties within families. Family crimes, problems and abuse become news stories. But most families do not experience these troubles. Since the earliest days of the United States, people have been predicting the decline of the family. In l859, a newspaper in the city of Boston printed these words: “The family in the old sense is disappearing from our land”. Those words could have been written yesterday. But the truth is that families are stronger than many people think.

Four out of five people in the United States live as members of families and they value their families highly. In one poll, 92 per cent of the people who were questioned said their family was very important to them.

Families give us a sense of belonging and a sense of tradition. Families give us strength and purpose. Our families show us who we are. As one American expert, who studies families says, “The things we need most deeply in our lives – love, communication, respect and good relationships – have their beginnings in the family”.

Families serve many functions. They provide a setting in which children can be born and reared. Families help educate their members. Parents teach their children values – what they think is important. They teach their children daily skills, such as how to ride a bicycle. They also teach them common practices and customs, such as respect for elders and celebrating holidays. Some families provide each member a place to earn money, in the United States, however, most people earn money outside the home. The most important job for a family is to give emotional support and security.

Families in a fast-paced, urban country such as the United States face many difficulties. American families adjust to the pressures of modern society by changing. These changes are not necessarily good or bad. They are simply the way Americans adjust to their world.