Culture
Nepal’s culture is very diverse, there are many different ethnic groups which involve Hindus, Buddhists, Muslim and Christians. Nepal became a secular country by order of the parliament on May 18, 2006, according to the Nepal Tourism Board. Nepal’s main religion is Hindu; this religion consists of 80% of Hindus, 9 percent are Buddhist, 4.4 percent are Muslim, 3.1 percent are Kirant and 1.4 percent are Christian, according to the CIA. Hindu is involved with the caste system, this has four sections which are Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the Shudras.
Family Structure In Nepal the family structure tends to be broken and hard to identify due to many ethnic groups. Most people do live with their immediate or extended families. Fathers are the primary income earners, and their purpose is to help the family in any way possible. Mothers are subordinate to men, which also depends on the ethnic group. The mothers focus more on household chores and taking care of their children. The children are expected to support and help their parents even if it means working instead of attending school.
Gender Roles
Gender roles in Nepal differ depending on what ethnic group they are in but seem to be improving gradually. In most households its believed that men have superiority over women. Men are seen as more masculine, so they are the ones who do most labor work. Women and girls have a disadvantage by traditional practices like the dowry system, early marriage, son preferences,
Family acts as a support in many ways. Since everyone contributes to the household, the Dadi treats everyone equally and when money is asked for any important purposes, the Dadi will provide the money no matter how expensive it is. Also, Dadi mentions that the family can bear anything, can suffer any lost because they suffer together. However, if one moves out, he is alone and have to provide solutions for himself. In the family, everyone works together; the dadi and dada work and make decisions together. Children do not have to work. However, if they leave the household, the daughter-in-law will have to manage everything on her own.
A woman’s role on the other hand does not consist of such significance and does not grant the power that the male role does. Rather, the female role consists of women acting modest and submissively; women are expected to be confined to being in their home, care for their family and depend on their spouses’ or males relatives.
Men and women are treated differently from each other. Society has developed stereotypes and archetypes for the two different genders. Men are portrayed to be strong, independent individuals that are the providers of the household. Women are often seen as weak subordinates that take care of the children and residences of men. The way society has characterized genders and their roles are as separate and unequal. Aaron H. Devor wrote in his essay “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender” the following quote: “It seems most likely that gender roles are the result of systematic power imbalances based on gender discrimination” (395). After reading several works on the portrayal of femininity and women, I can see where Devor is coming from when he talks about the imbalance of gender roles and I agree with his views on the matter.
When thinking of gender roles in society, stereotypes generally come to mind. Throughout history these stereotypes have only proven to be true. Major historical events have had a huge impact on the way men and women are seen and treated. In this way, women have always been secondary to males and seen as the fragile counterparts whose job is to take care of the household and most importantly, be loyal to her husband no matter the circumstance. Gender roles throughout history have greatly influenced society. The slow progress of woman’s rights throughout humanities led to an explosion of woman’s rights throughout the 20th century and that trend will only continue on into the rest of the 21st century.
Gender roles is a problem that takes place in both the workplace, domestic conditions, and society. Often signified through the age-old stereotype. That men are required of the more "challenging" or more "advanced" jobs, while women restrict themselves to the less grueling and less beneficial positions. Terms such as "that 's a man 's job" is a leading cause of inequality in the workplace. Not to mention, gender roles and standards are set in the homes of many families everywhere. The so-called "picture perfect family" situation; the husband goes to work while the wife stays home to tend to the children. While romanticized as ideal, this concept is the very essence of a patriarchal society. Meanwhile, the brutally vicious society we live in often berates women 's self-esteems in more way than one. Stereotypes of beauty, or who are skinny, pretty, white, and wealthy, are unfortunately the ideal standard of women and
Gender and the ways gender is portrayed in society varies from culture to culture. Gender roles have changed drastically, especially during the 20th century and continue to evolve to this day. For years now there have been preconceived notions about genders and the roles each one should play in society, home, workplace, etc. Most times gender roles are associated with stereotypes and previous gender roles. Gender role plays different parts in religion, culture, society, time periods, countries, etc. Women rights and power varies in time and location and it is very interesting to look at the events, cultures, and customs that were taking place in that particular time period to get a better idea of the gender role concept.
Institution, ones traditions, and everyday lives are filled with examples of men in positions of authority over women” (Kay, 2012). Inequalities in gender can be seen in marriage as well as parenting. It is believed that by many that a man should have a higher income than a female. In some cases women are being paid less than men in their work place and yet they hold the same credentials as men, this is where secondary status comes in. In most households it’s the female who cooks and clean look after the kids while the men work but roles can be divided when faced with certain duties, to accommodate one another. “Gender inequality forms the basis of sexism, misogynist and the prejudiced beliefs that males overpower females” (Anon. 2016).
As women are traditionally known to be child bearers, the society gives them the role of mother. This influences the type of work a woman can perform and the role she plays in the society. This conceptually distinguishes them from the male identity and masculine gender cannot acquire such roles within the society in that biologically, a man cannot bear children due to the hormonal states involved. This clearly makes childbearing to be a famine identity and the society to identify the role of masculine identity in the society. As most traditions believe that women are more of able to nurture as compared to men so feminine gender role is to care for the family by dedicating her full time rather than employment outside the home.
Various gender issues can be pointed out in the film. The “devaluation of feminized labor” and the “structural privileging of men and masculinity” are some of the gender issues presented in the film (Runyan and Peterson 2014: 186). Initially, gendered division of labor, specifically the paid vs unpaid work as Runyan and Peterson (2014: 82) presented are the some of the factors which made possible the marginalization of women in the economy. In the movie, the woman are expected to do household work.
An analysis of example can be derived from the aforementioned discriminatory sexist roles in India that prior to globalization highly favored the male population verses the female population. The female population in India has previously been less than second class citizens. Indian women's cultural roles have been previously defined by traditional customs that are centuries old and no longer apply in this day and age. Previous to globalization, Indian women were to take total domestic responsibility. They were not allowed formal education as the majority of teachers and pupils were male, and the chances of a female remaining chaste was slim in those settings, and related to tradition, females
Nepal is known to be a multi-religious country with religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Muslim, Christianity and other religions found there. However, 80 percent of the population of Nepal practices Hinduism. Which leads me to believe that the Hinduism has to have a great impact on the culture of Nepal. Hinduism is a male dominated religion and women often play a secondary role. There are many restrictive conditions that a Nepali Hindu woman has to live by. However, there is overwhelming respect for women because they considered gifts from the gods and aspects of pure energy. Hindus believe in the idea of karma and rebirth, the idea that each is reincarnated so that the soul can be purified.
8). The traditional views of gender roles are indeed quite different from the modern views. The men in society are the bread-winners where as the women take care of the children and home. There are basic and common work roles, however in terms of behaviour and involvement there are gender role distinctions. The sex roles generally play out in modern society as well, some sex roles and stereotypes for girls are that they are “nonaggressive, nonathletic, emotionally expressive, tender, domestic, and nurturing. Boys on the other hand are “aggressive, value achievement, attain goals through conflict, and work towards monetary success” (Whicker and Kronenfeld, 1986; pp. 8). The males in the society are “emotionally anesthetised, aggressive, physically tough and daring, unwilling or unable to give nurturance to a child” (Lewis and Sussman, 1986; pp. 1). These traits are carried out by this particular gender mostly outside the society to demonstrate their strength. Those individuals who ignore to carry out these personality traits are seen as weak and unmanly. The women on the other hand are given the responsibility of looking after the family and are supposed to have the opposite personality traits. For instance a woman can show emotions but not outside of the family because of the shame that would bring to the
Nepal, like most other countries is culturally diverse. Nepal is named for the Katmandu Valley, where the capital was established in the late eighteenth century. The Nepalese culture is a fusion of Indo-Aryan and Tibeto-Mongolian influences with a long history of migration and trade. The country is roughly the size of Nebraska, which makes it the 94th largest country in the world by size, but 41st largest in population ("Compare The United States To Nepal," 2017). The country has fourteen main spoken languages, with Nepali being the official and most common, but more than 50 languages exist. There are four main religions in Nepal, but the overwhelming majority of Nepalese people are Hindus, with Buddhist coming in a distant second. The
The role of gender can be different in accordance with different cultures and traditions. There are millions of culture and tradition in all around the world, and they can have different practices, social aspects, values and the role of gender in society. The role of gender can be evaluated and analyzed among different cultures, for example, the American culture, the Thai culture, and the Omani Culture.
In the employment part of research, men employees have higher opportunities to engage in high-level positions, but there is no evidence to show that to be laid off due to employees’ genders. In the education part of research, from the results of survey, it shows only a small degree of gender inequality in education system. Most of interviewees will spend the same proportion on their sons and daughters. For family part, we find that the gender inequality exists in families. The expectation of women is getting higher, they only need to take care the family, and also need to bear economic burden. Also men still hold more power than women, they act as a leader in decision-making. In media part, over a half of interviewees agreed that mass media always creates gender inequality, specially TV and magazines. We also find that gender inequality exists in politics nowadays, women have less opportunity to be elected, and in the villages of New Territories women have no rights for voting and electing.