Anthropology essay

Patriarchy is a problem that engulfed numerous communities across the world before civilization in the 21st century. These communities were purely dictated by male leaders who never allowed women to make any decisions. In families the norm was the same, a woman was simply to follow all the orders the husband could give without questions. This persisted until the 21st century when a number of these communities discarded the norms and embraced equality. However, the Gurung community has continued to oppress their women through various forms. In this paper I depict that the Gurung community uses gendered roles to ensure that their women remain subordinated to the males in the society.

Women in the Gurung community do not have voting rights despite their huge numbers. Voting in the community is purely subjected to males aged 15 years and above. The justification made for the discrimination against women in voting is that women are not as intelligent as the male counterparts hence they are likely to make poor judgments on the ideal candidates in the voting process. It is this claim that lets the male control the women like children. It is common to hear that any male who had many wives would be considered as an ideal person to manipulate by the politicians of the era. The reason being that the husband will manipulate the wives to vote for the ideal candidates the husbands do select. This was a high degree oppression that was meant to pin-down the women in the society. Essentially if the women could be allowed to vote on their own then there were chances that they could rule the community. To thwart this male ensured that the female’s roles were ingrained to family matters and not on the general welfare of the community. For instance a woman was supposed to cook, clean and give birth to children for their husbands. Basically these were the core duties of the women. During important community ceremonies women were literally left at home to guard the homesteads or take care of children.

No woman is allowed in the Gurung community to hold any job position. Where is your evidence that women can’t hold jobs? Even after going through the education system, women retire to their marital homes to take care of their families. There is no any basic education system or little if any that these women accrue. This is a move that puts the women in an awkward position to learn about their rights and obligations that may stir their uprising. The man’s domination in the community is deep rooted such that the women will never know the way out without enlightenment. Again, where is your evidence? No woman would hold a superior position without proper education; it is this gate to education that the male in the community have blocked. To make sure that women cannot gain education, they will have to rely on men in their community.

It is overlay illegal for any woman in the Gurung community to hold any position of authority. Generally the society upholds this as an abomination for any woman to rule. Evidence? There are numerous stereotypes that try to explain the impacts of a woman ruling in the community. For instance the community upholds that if a woman rules in that community then the gods will be unhappy and postulate a spell among the whole community. According to the religious lines of the community a woman is supposed to remain inbound to the husband’s compound and take care of the compound. Basically a woman’s role was defined and confined in the kitchen and the entire compound of the homestead. The role was to come subject to the husband and any other adult male in the family. By denying power to the female in the community, the male were able to thwart any competition that was forthcoming. It is basically a strategy to demise the female generation and ensures that they never stood up against the male.

In this kind of society, child learns about the demands and desires from their family. Husbands in the Gurung community are entitles to teach their dominance by declaring roles that must be done by female. In the community a girl child is expected to learn from her mother while the male child is supposed to learn from the father. Early in the day the father walks out with the son to show out his dominance while the mother remains at home struggling with house chores and preparing meals for the family. In this community a man is supposed to take care of the family and ensure that all the properties within his dominance are secure. It is unfortunate that in this community females are properties for their husband. Thus, they were subject to any kind of treatment or hard labor that the husbands desired. The roles the women play in the community do not guarantee them any opening for them to inquire on what is wrong or right. Just like in the military, they are subjected to commands that they are supposed to follow without any objection.

Sexuality has extremely profound impacts to gender relations. It illuminates gender inequality and gender relations. Some researchers have postulated that among the central motives of historical dominance of the male in various communities is the issue of female fertility. One of the principle ways of a male portraying their influence on women was to guarantee that they could control the bodies of their women. The control of female sexuality and fertility is a critical aspect in the Gurung community. To achieve this females are pushed to bear children. Infertile women are considered as outcasts in the community and a liability to the husbands. It is also ironic to note that even the fellow women consider such an infertile woman as a curse striven person. Basically the role of the female in the Gurung community is to give birth and rear children for their husbands.

The Gurung community is among many other communities in the world that infringes on women rights. It does this by ensuring that the women remain confined to less important duties that have no impact on the social wellbeing of the community. The community streamlines female roles to inferiority and male roles to superiority. Discrimination is at the highest in the community. For instance the female are not allowed to make personal decisions hence abstraction of power from the female and women do not undertake any chores that render them any financial gains without permission from the husbands. In a brief, females’ roles are to be subordination in their community.