User:Lauren Taylor 455/sandbox

Rural Gender Gender in rural areas can be separated from other areas of the United States because of how it is seen by society. In order to further explain this there needs to be an understanding first of what gender is. Gender is described in the text book The Kaleidoscope of Gender as "central to the intricate patterning of social life, ad encompasses power relations,the division of labor, symbolic forms, and emotional relations" (3). Using this as a basis for what gender is, we can now look at the roles it plays in the sense of views on gender, ideas that gender creates, and the roles it plays in society based on social norms.

Views on Gender When looking at views on gender in rural areas it is seen differently by each individual person, but as a whole there are some stereotypical viewpoints that rural areas carry. Since gender is a role that is taught by society and each individual sex is pressured by society to preform that role for their sex, explaining the gender roles in rural America is important. Many times the terms gender and sex are used interchangeably, when that is technically not true by definition. It is important to keep in mind, as the website The Gender Spectrum has noted that gender is not connected to a person’s anatomy. For women there was a big center around being in the household and taking care of children. This was different when World War II occurred because that is the beginning of women taking on jobs outside the home. They assumed the lead position on the farms and it outside income jobs such as secretaries or other office related activities, nurses, or teachers. These jobs are also called pink collar jobs, or jobs that are more for the purpose of care giving as the article Family in Troubled Times has stated. Today there is still a divide in women and men’s roles in the rural sector. As described in the International Labor Organization, “the poorest of the poor are often women and young girls who lack regular and decent employment, and who may face hunger and/or malnutrition, and poor access to health, education and productive assets.” They explain that women benefit less from rural employment then men do, possibly be related to the fact that these jobs are more labor jobs rather than office jobs. When it comes to the male’s role in the rural areas there are differences regarding the fact that males should be the ones who own the assets, work outside the home, and can manage certain jobs that are believed that women cannot manage. The International Labor Organization also mentioned that socially and sometimes even legally a woman will not gain property or inheritance rights and that it would go to a male. This puts women at another downfall when it comes to economic empowerment. Overall the socially acceptable idea that a woman is in the household sphere and that the male is in the working sphere remains that same in many rural areas. Roles of Men and Women The next aspect to gender is the idea that these gender norms can help create and expand on as the idea of gender continues to be taught. A very important one that goes off of the roles of men and women is that a woman would not be able to handle owning property or even managing assets that are outside the home and are of economic value. This is why the International Labor Organization has emphasized that women are being treated at a disadvantage when they are not even trusted to own property that could rightfully be theirs. Another norm that has been created through gender that the article Rural geography: rural gender identity and the performance of masculinity and femininity in the countryside is that men have to hold a “macho” appearance thus including them to hold the financial accountability for a family and for the women to hold the domestic title. Jo Little also has said that the rural areas are less inclined to adapt feminist approaches to things such as work or being outside the home. The rural areas are more involved in keeping the males in one general area of work and the women in another. This causes a separation of the sexes and the added pressures of performance to males and females. In the book Families in Troubled Times it was also explained that since the males are seen to have the paid jobs then they are the ones who are supposed to be focused on making sure the family is financially set, during times of economic crisis this puts added pressure on males causing tension in the family. This tension is due to the idea that a women should be taking care of the home and children while the male makes the money, causing a female to feel as if she is taking her job into consideration and a male is not caring. This dynamic leads to problems in the home because the female feels that she is not being financially supported by her spouse. Overall gender norms can cause problems in the way that it limits property ownership to more males and creates a stigma that females are unable to handle higher priced items, also that feminism and other approaches to women working outside the home are harder to adapt because there is the lingering idea that males should have this job, and finally it puts stress on both males and females because they feel that the other is lacking if the and needs of the family are not met in one genders social jobs.

Gender Confusion The final aspect of gender that creates problems in rural areas society is gender confusion. While many people do not have a problem identifying their gender with their sex, there are many that do. This is not widely accepted in rural America as it is in other parts of the United States. This is where the idea of a spectrum becomes relevant, which is explained on The Gender Spectrum website. They explain that this gender spectrum “of anatomical variations by itself should be enough to disregard the simplistic notion of only two genders”. They are trying to enforce the fact that these gender norms, though they seem simple, are too simple for society and that it lacks the visibility to individuals being able to expresses themselves in the way that they deem personalized in order to meet the needs of societies ideas of gender, or as it is simply put according to the website “like other social constructs, gender is closely monitored by society”. Males live with this stigma that they have to be described as tough, strong and able to endure various elements of life, as well as keep emotion to a minimum or anything else that matter that shows weakness. Women on the other hand are supposed to do just the opposite when the two interchange these identifiers then they become either weak, or to masculine to perform their gender. Jo Little explained this in Rural geography: rural gender identity and the performance of masculinity and femininity in the countryside when he spoke about farmers who had the idea of hard working, tough masculinity were the most successful farmers. Whenever a male stepped out of this idea then he was automatically deemed as not masculine. When looking at people who do not identify in their gender the idea of being homophobic steps into place. An article called Explaining Comfort with Homosexuality in Rural America identified that people generally do have homophobia because of the uncertainty of it, the lack of learning about it and overall the fear of AIDS. People are not as inclined to accept it because of the lack of knowledge and the break in social norms that this feeling brings. When looking at the big picture of gender confusion in rural areas is it is too complex to be divided into two categories, also that acting in the other gender can be seen as something to frown upon and different to what society expects out of someone causing them to become alienated from others. Finally, the idea that this is something that is not unheard of but rarely talked about, almost making it unaccepted.

Lauren Taylor 455 (talk) 04:31, 16 November 2013 (UTC)

Lauren Taylor 455 (talk) 01:43, 15 November 2013 (UTC)Lauren Taylor 455 (talk) 04:20, 16 November 2013 (UTC)

For the newest update on my plans for the Wiki page I will still be adding a subheading to Rural Areas North America but since there is one on rural schools and rural health I will add the section "Rural Gender". This will have information regarding views,ideas, and social norms that are acceptable in the rural areas of North America. To introduce the idea of gender I think there needs to be an explanation of what gender is and how it can be learned and so forth for this I will use out class text and a website I found in my annotated bibliography research that helps explain gender. This will help add more to the Wiki edit rural areas page because a large part rural areas work differently then urban areas, especially in North America so having this will be an informative contribution. In order to make my Wiki edit I plan on setting it up as such: first reflecting the generalized ideas that exist in these areas. This means the roles that men and women play, for this section my sources "Families in troubled times: Adapting to change in rural america" and "Gender equality in the rural sector: The ever-present challenge" will help talk about what the men and women feel they need to accomplish to be a socially accepted member of society in a rural area. Then I will go on to explain the differences that they face when these gender roles are placed in rural areas using the source "Gender and rural poverty" which explains problems that women endure that men do not in rural areas. Finally, my last piece will be the gender differences and how gender related "problems" such as homosexuality is not tolerated and not really introduced in rural areas. I have a couple of good sources for this such as " Explaining Comfort with Homosexuality in Rural America " and "Just Queer Folks: Gender and Sexuality in Rural America". These three topics I feel are overall views about gender and they come hand in hand with each other. These issues are important to understand when understanding and learning about gender. I do think a main point that I want to make when giving a definition of gender is that gender is learned and means different things in different societies.

Lauren Taylor 455 (talk) 00:47, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

For my Wikipage I have three ideas that I have in mind for using.

My topics are:

1. Talking about how we learn gender and how it can vary in different parts of America on what exactly we are learning.

2. How gender is different to people in the United States and what it means to people in different areas of the US.

3. What does it mean to have Men's work or Women's work and the relation that brings to respect for each gender in different fields.