Gender+Roles+and+Expectations

= = Feminine ** Feminism ** Female
 * Female Dichotomy and challenges to it **
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Expectations from Men ** Gender Roles and Expectations: Chapters 1-3  __** She seems to be challenging gender roles as she is fighting for emancipation of women. Theirs right to vote etc. Yet she is very dependent on her husband. She cannot stand for the elections and for her to progress with her fight for women rights she has to wait until he secures a seat in the parliament ‘**but she shared her husband’s parliamentary ambitions, hoping that if he won’t a seat in congress she would finally secure a vote for women**’ (pg 3). She does carry out the same life as normal women to some extent as she is a mother of 15 children showing that she has spent a lot of time taking care of the children.  Women’s attire is a symbol of the suppression that women face. The tight fit of the corset symbolizes how suppresses the freedom of women. As Nivea says even though the women become doctors and medically aware their attire will restrict them from being free yet even people like her do not have the courage to go against the conventional dressing for women. (Pg 6) ‘**But she herself was not brave enough to be among the first to give up fashion’**.  Ferula seeks salvation through her self-sacrificing devotion to her mother, and on the other hand resents the fact that a woman does not have the same freedom to leave the family behind that Esteban does. She is a dutiful daughter as she takes care of her invalid mother. However, she does not like it ‘I **would like to have been born a man, so I could leave too, she said full of hatred’** (pg 45). Although the narrators never explicitly condemn gender inequality, they consistently explain the different experiences of men and women. In the face of his financial situation, Esteban is able to go out, find work, and better his situation. His sister Ferula on the other hand could only have bettered her lot by marrying someone with more money. Even that option was not quite open to her since, as the daughter, the care of their mother fell on her shoulders. Gender also comes to play in the peasants' class situation. When Esteban arrives in Tres Marias he notices that very few men of working age remain. Those men left their families to find work while the women stayed at home, parallel to the Trueba family situation. Esteban perpetuates gender inequality as he distributes Christmas bonuses only to the men, considering that only men head households.   **Estaban as a chauvinist:**  <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">**Additional Points:** <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Dona Ester married below her social station, out of love. Her husband quickly squandered their dowry trying among other things to transform a property they owned in the country, Tres Marias, into an opulent estate <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">
 * __<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">House of spirits:
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Nivea: she is an active suffragette
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Nivea’s corset is a symbol of the repression and suppression
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Lack of freedom for women compared to men
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Gender complicates class analysis.
 * Esteban is very conservative in his out look. He is a male chauvinist. He rapes virgin girls since he is the patron, showing exploitation of women. The first girl he rapes is Pancha. She is submissive as she says her mother and grandmother were succumbed by this and so she takes it very passively as seen on pg 57 “ Before her, her mother- and before her, her grandmother- had suffered the same animal fate”. A lot of animal imagery is used showing how Estaben treats women as seen on pg 57 “ He threw his arms around her waist, swept her up with an animal- like grunt”.
 * Estaben marries Clara and this is ironical as he would want his wife to be dutiful since he is a male chauvinist and he thinks that a man should have complete control over his wife (pg 67- “Its crying shame that ther ‘s always an influential husband, some spineless judge or fireband members of congress to set them free. What these cases really need is a strong hang”) but he cannot control Clara as she carries on with her own ways and later she fights for the rights of the women and Esteban has a good post and he just watches it. This infuriates him and frustrates him. According to Esteban the male’s sexual desires are primary. He evades responsibility as he leaves Pncha when she is pregnant.
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Esteban's family is of the upper class because of **his mother's family name** <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">
 * Clara defying gender roles:**<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
 * Clara is the first to announce the marriage, and Clara asks Esteban if he wants to marry her. She is defying the gender expectations <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Clara never learns any of the domestic skills that would allow her to perform the role of the traditional wife.she breaks conevention. In her own way defies the gender roles. Just like her mother Nivea but in a less public form. Clara carries out all of this with the greatest apparent passivity. Through supposedly traditional feminine passivity, Clara resists traditional feminine roles.
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Ferula's presence in the household tips the gender balance. In the traditional and acceptable space of female friendship, Ferula and Clara develop a bond deeper than that of either woman to Esteban. Ferula in particular devotes herself entirely to Clara. Ferula's passion for Clara is so strong that it borders on romantic and sexual desire.
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Tradition of dowry symbolizing oppression of women