January 29, 2008
Experiental Blog 1a: Women's Movements
Call your grandmother (or another older woman in your family) tonight. (C'mon, I know you have a cell phone!) She'll love the attention and you will cherish the memories you will make from this phone conversation. Ask her what it was like being a woman throughout the decades. What was life like for her and her female friends when she was your age? What career options were available to her? What changes has she seen in her lifetime for women? What does she think about these changes?
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Talked to my mama the other day. She was just settling down to "Jeopardy!", so I had to wait until it was over and call her back. Oh mom...
Anywho, my mom was raised in a very small, conservative community in which gender roles were very structured and defined: the women in the family were the housekeepers, nurturers, cleaner-uppers, etc... while the men worked all day to support the family. She said these "norms" transferred over into her adult life when she raised me and my siblings, but she was more exposed to women's movements than her mother was.
In particular, my mom mentioned that when she was in her twenties she witnessed the "women's lib" movement through certain newscasts and announcements - she would catch word of a rally in this city, or a new woman spokesman giving a speech in this city. She couldn't remember any specific event that had a deep impact, but she remembers feeling very indifferent to it all. My mom had never seriously considered doing anything other than marrying a man and becoming a wife and mother - it wasn't that she was against the idea of branching out into the workforce, but she had only known the traditional roles that she saw growing up.
I asked what she thought of women's movements today and the changes in gender roles developing as we speak. She said "I think it's always a good thing when women can discover new things about them, be it occupational potential or just knowing that you're not bound to be a housewife." She hadn't heard directly of groups like Ecofeminist or Lesbian Feminists, but she says as long as they are challenging the norms in non-violent ways, what's the problem?
After that, she asked if I was coming home this weekend, that she would cook my favorite lasagna dish. I said yes. I love her lasanga.
My grandma was a nurse her whole life. She was also a mother, a homemaker and a caretaker. At one point, she had eight people living in her house. Her, her husband, their three kids, her husband's mother, her husbands brother. She had to come home after a full day of work and prepare food for all of them. Often, she would busy herself over the preparation so much that she would forget to eat herself. Eventually, her hair started falling out from stress and malnourishment because she was stretching herself so thin ever day. She was truly living a traditional gendered role of a woman and what was expected of her at that time.
Also, in regards to her nursing career, the field was almost all women at the time. She spoke of how different nursing is today from how it was then and how it bothers her. Back then, each patient had a specific nurse and no one else, now they all rotate in and out as their shifts change. These changes bother her and she makes mention of them frequently.
I haven't called my grandma yet in regard to this, but there was something I had to say that is somewhat related. My friends grandpa passed away recently, and she was talking about how hard it has been for her grandma to adapt to life without him. After his death, she found it hard in everyday life. She had never even pumped gas before! This amazes me that the changes that have happened though the generations didn't always affect the older ones!
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