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Igbo Gender Roles Essay

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Gender Roles in the Ibo and American Culture
Gender roles can be found throughout history and the world and, in almost every case, there will always be differences. Girls and boys alike learn a set of behaviors, attitudes, responsibilities, and rights in accordance with their specific sex (Culture and Human Experience). The differences in gender roles can be especially obvious in Ibo culture and modern American culture.

In the Ibo culture, specifically the village of Umuofia, the gender roles of men and women are clearly defined through their division of labor, the attitudes that shape their gender constructs, and the relations that exist between men and women (Culture & Human Experience). The women in this culture are expected to have children to continue the family, having children is seen as a great honor especially if the child is a boy as the boy will grow into a man, which dominate the society, and will be able to help more with the farm (Marriage and Family Structure). Women are seen as beneath men and this is proven at one point in …show more content…

In today’s society it is okay and acceptable to be a Stay-At-Home dad when in previous years it would not be so, likewise it is now common for women to have not just jobs but careers (Gender Roles within American Marriage: Are They Really Changing?). With these changes in society there are still some people who wish to keep the strict gender roles of ages past, but in all honesty while there was a reason for them in the past, with men needing to be the worker in the fields while women had to tend to the children, it is believed by the majority of the people that the past is in fact the past and the ideas and it itself should stay

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Throughout this essay I will be explaining the gender roles, comparing them and how they affect the Umuofian society. In the Umuofian society, Women and men have different roles and expectations to live up to, men were believed to be superior and that women were inferior. One of the tasks that women were burdened with was dinner. They were expected to prepare dinner for their family in the Umuofia tradition.

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