Gender issues

Stereotyping Genders from Everyday Use

Stereotyping men and women have always been an issue in literature and media but it should not be so if one accepts that all people are different and it is this difference that affects the social perception being expressed in the different forms of literature and media

In a speech made by Professor Amy Wax of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law , she explained that stereotyping studies have become too focused on the achievement levels of men and women but never really gave in-depth analysis to

why men seem to have more success ' in popular fields such as authorship in literature , engineering , etc . Professor Wax argues that men and women possess differences that explain this circumstance such as their views on competition , ambition and aggression . Women , she believes , possess a greater attraction to and interest in people rather than things , a relative reluctance to focus on career advancement at the expense of domestic pursuits , and a stronger desire to achieve life balance ' compared to men (Silvester 2008 ) This can be seen in the short story , Everyday Use ' written by Alice Walker in 1973

The story portrays three very different women within one nuclear family . Mama is big-boned and strong enough to do work that men are fit to physically do . Maggie is timid and insecure about many things probably because she had always been the practical and not worldly sister . Dee , on the other hand , is very prone to social pressures and is more...