Author Archives: Mildred Pena

Final Personal Reflection (Mildred)

Mildred Pena

Professor Ashton

WGST 1001

19 December 2021

 

Final Personal Reflection

 

When I signed up for this course, I was not too sure about what I would be learning, but I was so glad I did. In this course, we talked about so many interesting topics that go on in the world today. It felt great to have a professor that is very kind, helpful and understanding. The professor always valued everyone’s opinions and that made us feel comfortable and confident all the time. Being that it’s my first time taking a gender studies course, I learned many new terms that I didn’t know about before. I loved how we were all able to feel comfortable sharing our opinions on different topics and learning from each other. I believe gender studies is so important in the world today because it helps us gain knowledge about gender identity. Gender identity plays an important part in relationships and love. We live in a world where everyone has different views or beliefs, and people are always being judged for being different.

One of my favorite topics to learn and write about was gender equality. Gender equality means equal responsibilities, opportunities and rights for all genders. I enjoyed writing a blog post about gender equality because it gave me the opportunity to share my feelings about this topic and receive feedback from my classmates. Gender equality plays a big part in love, marriage, relationships and family. One of my favorite readings of this course was the S.T.A.R interview because it brings up many valid points on gender equality that I agree with. For example, when Sylvia Rivera mentions that she doesn’t believe that a transvestite or a woman should do all the washing or all the cooking at home (12). In different parts of the world, men are given more power and what they say, goes. I believe everything in a marriage or relationship should be 50/50. Part of being married or in a relationship is supporting and respecting one another in every way. Both men and women can go to work and take care of the responsibilities at home, that’s what love really is. Gender equality shows unity, appreciation, and respect for all.

Another topic I really enjoyed talking about and doing research on was gender stereotypes. There are some jobs that are still gender stereotyped today. For our group presentation, I chose to write about women in firefighting because it’s not very common to see women as firefighters. Firefighting is seen as a masculine occupation because some feel that women aren’t physically strong enough to perform the duties of a firefighter. I enjoyed learning about other occupations that are gender stereotyped like teaching and nursing. I also enjoyed working in a group with my classmates because I feel like we all did a great job at communicating and putting together a great presentation with many important details about gender stereotyped occupations. I was very nervous when I had to present my part of the presentation, but it felt good to receive lots of positive feedback.

Being in this class was a lot of fun because even though we didn’t have class together in person, we all got to learn so much from each other and we had lots of good laughs. This is my first semester back in school after taking a long break and I was very nervous about going back to school but being in this class made the semester less stressful for me. I’m glad I decided to take this course because I learned so much about gender identity and what goes on in our world today.

 

Gender Equality

Gender equality is having equal rights, opportunities and responsibilities for all genders. In some countries around the world, Men are given more power and have control over women. They believe that women should stay home to handle all the housework and take care of the kids while their husband goes to work. When the husband gets home from work, dinner should be ready, and the house should be clean. I don’t feel there is anything wrong with this if it’s what keeps a marriage in a good place, but I also feel that in a marriage there are many ways to support each other. Life today is very hard, and everything is very expensive. If there is more than one income at home, it is easier to cover the expenses.  In the S.T.A.R interview, Sylvia Rivera mentions that she doesn’t believe that a transvestite or a woman should do all the washing or all the cooking and do everything that’s forced on by society and the establishment that woman have to do this (12). I agree with what Rivera believes because if you are in a relationship and you really love someone, you will support that person in every way that you can.

 

Everything at home should be 50/50 like one day you will cook and the next day your spouse will cook. One of the first questions I get asked when I’m getting to know someone is, “Do you know how to cook?” I know many married couples who both the husband-and-wife handle all the responsibilities at home whether it’s cleaning, cooking or taking care of the kids. They don’t do it because someone told them they are supposed to, they do it because they love each other, and they are there to support one another. If we want to see change in the world, we must change the way we think. Growing up, I always heard “The man should always pay.” Why should the man always pay? Just because he’s a man? I don’t feel there is anything wrong with a woman treating a man to dinner or buying him a nice gift to make him feel special. I have been on dates in the past where I paid for dinner or movies. When you are in a relationship or married, you do anything you can to make sure that person is always happy. Just like women, men also love to feel appreciated.

 

Gender Equality

Gender equality is having equal rights, opportunities and responsibilities for all genders. In the S.T.A.R interview, Sylvia Rivera mentions that she doesn’t believe that a transvestite or a woman should do all the washing or all the cooking and do everything that’s forced on by society and the establishment that woman have to do this (12). I agree with what Rivera believes because if you are in a relationship and you really love someone, you will support that person in every way that you can. Everything at home should be 50/50 like one day you will cook and the next day your spouse will cook. In many countries, people believe that all the housework should be done by women while men go to work. One of the first questions I get asked when I’m getting to know someone is, “Do you know how to cook?” I know many married couples who both the husband-and-wife handle all the responsibilities at home whether it’s cleaning, cooking or taking care of the kids. They don’t do it because someone told them they are supposed to, they do it because they love each other, and they are there to support one another. If we want to see change in the world, we must change the way we think.