Sumblog 6

 This week in class we continued discussing the memorable women theorists in today's society. One of the theorists that we discussed that really stuck out to me was Charolette Perkins Gilman, who focused more so on micro sociology. Gilman discussed the organization of society and how economic independence are relative. Gilman states in the reading, "All living things are economically dependent  on others- the animals upon the vegetables, and man upon both." So goes on to discus whether or not women are truly independent. She describes a marriage as the man being the employer and the women being the employee. She discusses how a man provides for the family and with out the man the women would not survive, therefore, calling a women dependent on her husband.  Gilman identifies two origins of gender stratification as the following, we are living in an misogynistic culture, this making the man seem more supreme, the males also dominate the public of society. Gilman recognizes that men control women, but that women must follow because the man provides.

I would say that these theories were very applicable in Gilmans time and age, but no longer applicable today. In today's generation, women very much so have their independence. They are pushed to go out get a college degree, be a part of the public society, and provide for the household as well. I will by no means argue that women gaining their rights back and independence back as a bad thing; but I feel we are running into some of the same issues that Gilman was discussing, only on the opposite spectrum. I feel as though women are pushed out of the household, and told to go out and get a college degree work, or their life is a waste. As a women who wants to stay home with her children for the developmental stages of their lives, this is upsetting to me. When I mention I want to be a stay at home mom, I often times receive looks of judgement and the comment of " you do realize you are wasting your life, and slapping women's rights in the face, right". No, I do not feel that I am. I feel as an independent women I should be able to make any decision for my future that I want, I should never be pushed by society to make a certain decision, to fit a mold that society has created. I simply feel society is pushing us out of traditional values, and attempting to make us into individual people, with no self value (Durkheim's idea's). This terrifies me.

We must all find the greatness in ourselves, not in what society tells us.