In a Different Voice
I was pretty struck by the idea that the norm is a male norm and that being female means you are essentially going against the norm. It is not something I ever really thought about because growing up I never felt like I was being judged by male norms, but once I read about it here I thought it was interesting. I mean we do live in a whole that has been dominated by men for centuries. It has only been a relatively small amount of time that women have been been seen with a level of equality as men. It seems obvious now that the norm would be male.
Chodorow's analysis that girls identify themselves in terms of relationships while boys see themselves as more differentiated is based one how our mothers view and treat us in our early development is interesting. It makes me wonder what would happen/does happen when the larger influence for a child is his/her father. Does this switch? Do girls become more individual because they see the differences in gender at a young age and boys become relationship orientated because they are the same as and a continuation of their fathers?
As an aspiring teacher Gillgan's book made me really think about gender differences. When we think about diversity in the classroom, I don't think we typically consider gender as a diversity issue, but the book really reminded me that it needs to be a consideration and that I have to not only be aware of ethnical/racial differences but gender differences as well.
I was also pretty wowed by the idea that women are defined by a male norm. It started to make sense to me as I read Gilligan's book, but like you, I had never realized it before. I think you also pose a great question as to whether a child would be different if the bigger influence in their life was their father. I think when we did the fishbowl exercise in class this question was touched on a bit. We identify most with the parent we were brought up by. We identify with the person who had the biggest influence on our life growing up. Therefore, I think that this would switch if the biggest influence was the father. Thanks! I really enjoyed reading your blog : )
ReplyDeleteI never really considered gender to be a diversity issue either. As an English major, my classes tended to be dominated by girls. Maybe being in classes with more girls than boys has made me forget about gender in the classroom. I'm not sure if the roles would be reversed or not with the father figure or not. It's hard to imagine only having my dad. I could definitely imagine being a different person and role reversal is definitely a possibility.
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