Just a Little Something

Just a Little Something

Throughout history and in all cultures the roles of males and females vary.Relating to the piece of literature "Girl" written by Jamaica Kincaidfor the time, when women's roles were to work in the home. By examining genderroles, then one may better understand how women and men interact and how betterto build relationships at home and in the world of business. At the time thatthis work was written, women mainly stayed at home and did housework while fewof the very poorest households required the woman to work in an industrial job.Kincaid wrote of the specific roles and responsibilities that a mother wouldtell her daughter. By what she wrote, one can fully understand what was expectedof a woman at that time and in that particular culture. The object of examininggender roles is to answer the question why should women and men be equal and"Are there populations in which men and women are absolutely equal? Arethere societies in which women dominate men?" (Gender 238) By understandingthe culture in which this piece of literature is written, the gender roles andthe rules of behavior for a woman, then the relationships between genders can berealized. The general myth about women and their gender role in the Americansociety is that the mother works in the home and supports her man in every way.For each relationship, the people in that relationship must decide theparticular roles that they will play. In the literary work "Girl",Kincaid shows clearly that the woman's role in this work was to serve the familyand to work mainly in the house. The mother writing this story tells herdaughter that "this is how you iron your father's khaki shirt so that itdoesn't have a crease" (Kincaid 489). In this marriage, it is understoodthat the wife is to do the laundry for the husband. Today's society does notalways provide these clear roles since many women work a full time job and thehouse chores are a responsibility for both to handle. Though the woman is stillmainly held responsible for...