Indigenous culture there was no such thing as gender. It was an egalitarian society. In many Indigenous cultures the women had important powers. They were the one who made decisions in their household. In addition, gender was not divided because both men and women could become shamans in the culture of the Innu of Northern Quebec and Southern Labrador. Furthermore, when Europeans came in their land, they were surprised to see that women are high in the hierarchy because “gender relations vary from one culture vary to another”. Men and women roles were equally divided, and they were both essential to ensure their survival. In other words, their labour work was divided so that their family or tribe could survive and eat. Moreover, people who are two spirited (masculinity and femininity are in one body) could marry individual from the same sex.

The Indigenous cultures had many differences during colonialism, but now they are coming to be similar. In contemporary Western culture, the notion of gender is slowly being eliminated. In Canada, people are trying to eliminate it and bringing egalitarian ideas like the First Nations. However, there is still a long way to go because women are not totally equal to men. For example, in some jobs, women are not paid as same as men. In addition, another similarity is that Western culture legally accepts the LGBTQ+ community, however they are still some cases where they get discriminated. Furthermore, both Indigenous cultures and contemporary Western culture have sexual autonomy which means that they can have sexual relationships before marriage, chose their spouse and divorce which are all common now. One thing that is different is that women are less included are less included in politics. In the United States most of the ministers are men and the women are minority. In indigenous culture women are allowed to be shamans which is highly respected in their society. In brief, Western culture are becoming similar to Indigenous cultures as the years go by, however there is still some struggle trying to normalize it.

What struck me the most about the Indigenous culture is that they are matrilocal and matrilineal seen in Iroquoian culture. I did not know that it was common for them that a man has to live his house when he marries a woman. I am so used to seeing that the bride moves in with her husband when they get married. Today it happens, but it is not common even in Western culture. In conclusion, we can learn from the Indigenous culture is that in order to live together and peacefully equality must not be absent. Men are just as important in society and in the household as women. In their culture there is no discrimination against people based on their gender. Moreover, gender equality eliminates stereotypical ideologies that Western people have in their minds.

In indigenous culture gender is not categorized. There’s no ideology of women being “inferior” and men being “superior”. Both genders have their own tasks and skills that they are trained from birth to do so. There’s an equal amount of division of tasks to do on the daily. They even accept those who put themselves under the category of “two-spirit”. They also do not have any restrictions in sexual relations before marriage unlike the Europeans. It’s safe to say that they had the society we dream to have today. 

The case that makes us similar to them is the idea of equality. The difference is that Western culture took time to realize that women can do more than just cook, clean and take care of their children and yet were the ones who were “civilized” at that time. While the indigenous people were way ahead of them; establishing ground rules to divide the amount of tasks equally between each gender. They never left women out of the picture, women had a big role in decision making as much as the men did in their culture. Indigenous people’s ideology of equality between genders was way ahead of time. Now we wish and hope that, that day will come around. 

I didn’t get struck by the way indigenous culture was formed and how they operated amongst themselves, since I have taken anthropology, which mentioned the “two-spirit” and talked a lot about other clans/tribes that are minorities.

We can learn from indigenous people about gender is that each gender has their own strengths and weaknesses. Both can help one another in order to succeed and progress, and for that to happen no one should be stepping on anyone’s toes and no one should be at the top to give orders. Yes they did have a chief, but he/she/ that family gained that status by vote or by helping everyone else. Yet they do not govern their tribe. 

According to the Gender and Culture Diversity in the Early Contact Period, it describes how the cultures of both the English and French colonizers and the indigenous colonizers encountered. After reading about the indigenous cultures, I learned about how men hunted and gathered, while women took care of gathering berries, prepping for meals and taking care of the children. Although the work was divided and the men were mostly leaders, women had authority and were respected. Women were also entitled to be Shaman and included into everyday life decisions. On the other hand, European people lived in a different way. Men also did the hunting and gathering while women took care of the family and cooked, but women had no say in anything. There was a hierarchy that men were in charge and that women and children had no choice but to obey the man of the family. The only time a woman would be involved was if a man decided to sell his property, he would have to consult his wife before doing so. Unfortunately, women were kind of put in the background, they would be seen as assistants rather than owners. Ultimately, aboriginal women had great power and European women weren’t allowed to rule their husbands.  

Both cultures do relate to our own contemporary Western culture. When comparing the indigenous culture to today, women and men do share equal responsibilities in a household, like cooking, working, cleaning and taking care of children. Women and men can both be owners of a business and both have opinions that are accepted and valued. Unfortunately, not everyone perceives life that way so that’s why the European culture relates to our culture as well. For example, there’s stereotypes of how women should be in the kitchen and shouldn’t work because they aren’t capable of doing so. How women should be silenced and walk behind their husbands, just as the French women did. Even today, men will refuse to cook or clean because they believe it’s a women’s job. There’s no excuse to why it should be considered a “women’s job”, when other cultures have been proving that all genders should be equal. 

Lastly, the aspects of indigenous cultures that struck me the most were that the women were seen as, “hyper-sexual” because they weren’t bound to one husband and that they were allowed to experiment sexually before marriage. It upsets me that the European women would trash indigenous people, when in reality it’s what they all should’ve been routing for. It’s ridiculous how many innocent people from European cultures have been forced into marriage without any love ties, therefore I find it rather strange that they wouldn’t want that for themselves. I think that a choice to experiment sexually before marriage and the right to divorce should’ve been less frowned upon by European women because it could’ve led to a place where all genders are equal.

By: Julianna Noto

During the past few years, the industry of rap music has sky rocketed and there has become more and more of a following towards this type of music. Rap music carries a catchy beat and most of the time, expresses an individual’s feelings. Although this genre of music is widely known and enjoyed, it doesn’t hide the fact that it also delivers extremely inappropriate and degrading context towards women. Many rap songs, including the ones I listen to, give out a very harsh and humiliating message towards women which is trying to belittle and criticize their worth and individual capacities.

            The lyrics of these songs put an image on women, stating that they are vulnerable, fragile, dependant and follow whatever the men tell them to do or say. It has gotten to the point where the words said in certain songs can make many of us women feel uncomfortable and very disrespected. It seems that many rap artists categorize women as objects rather than opinionated human beings which is very wrong, yet nobody seems to take action on the arrogant comments expressed in the lyrics. In a post published in 2004, they present a certain part of the lyrics in one of Ludacris’ songs, that says “Move bitch get out the way, get out the way bitch, get out the way.” This language is way out of the boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed and on top of that, the lyrics previously shown is nothing close to the worst of what’s out there. 

            After analyzing many song lyrics, I recognized that male and women rappers both have completely different points that they are trying to put across to us listeners. Many women rappers such as Cardi B and Nicki Minaj have no interest in attacking or judging men but rather focus on empowering women and give them a voice where women didn’t have one originally.  By these women rappers speaking up, it opens a door to more female rappers who are trying to portray the same message.

https://www.grin.com/document/40508

Marissa Fata

Briana Panaccione

The document on Aboriginal and Europeans talks about the gender relations in each of their societies. As for Indigenous people, their ways of distributing power was very just and egalitarian. In their society, the male and women tasks were very different but had an equal value for contributing to their survival. For example, while men did the hunting, the women cleaned the meat and prepared the meals. Women in aboriginal societies were also eligible to important decision making such as trade decisions, distribution of food etc.…; they also shared the power with the men to be a Shaman. Each aboriginal society respected and viewed women as having equal power and domination as men. They acknowledge that the jobs done by the women are crucial to their survival which is why a women’s role is their society is very important.  They even included a two-spirit gender identity role in certain indigenous societies. It is the accommodation of masculine and feminine traits in one body, each aboriginal society expresses this identity in different ways. Overall, men were not distinctly seen as more powerful in Indigenous societies; women shared power with the men and were seen as equally essential to their everyday lives.

          Gender relations in indigenous societies are quite similar to todays society. I might even say that a women’s role in their society was more appreciated in their culture then in todays contemporary world. From indigenous cultures, I can gather that todays view on women roles and their view on women roles both show supportive recognition to a women’s abilities and contributions to society. Women have the right to important decisions and positions as well as men do.  The difference to me seems that women in their culture didn’t have to fight for justice between the sexes because their jobs were already seen as equally valued. In todays society, we seem to have adopted a more European view on women’s roles because although we have had a great increase in the support of women’s power, we still had to fight a long time for our rights to equality. Indigenous women were not all seen as equal to men but for the most part both genders shared equal status. While reading the document, I was surprised by the power women had in indigenous cultures. I figured back in those times that all women were seen as less; I appreciated the fact that a women’s role could be equally valued and recognized as those of the men. Women in aboriginal cultures worked hard, as well as the men did, and a society that can view women as equal to men shows strength, decency and intelligence.

Yasmine Meddane

A movement can only start if a whole group comes as united to fight the common enemy. To be able to achieve change as big as the feminist movement, the changes must start by the improvement of the woman status in her household. We always hear about “the man in the house” and even if the woman work as much I never hear anyone referring to their mom as “the woman I the house”. Why is that? Why would woman still not be automatically consider as being a source of income and discipline in their family equal to their partner? Households perception of the man and the woman in their family need to change before anything else. 

Women as soon as they are born are told how pretty they are an how they will marry a good man one day. A man that will be able to provide for her. Parents raise their daughters to be, yes, independent but only until they find the good partner for them. Meanwhile, man are raised with “values” emphasizing on their capability to support their future spouse and family. A woman should have dreams but as soon as she turns 30 there is that believe where everyone will tell her to find a good man before its too late because when she will, her life will magically be perfect. I don’t agree with those false expectations and I definitely think that they should evolve. The only way to do that is to raise our kids ( if we do want to have kids ) with equity being a boy or a girl.

Woman shouldn’t be the only one whose place and education should be revisited in an household because there is a lot of pressure placed on men for them to be socially acceptable in the eyes of the opposite sex. Money, ambition, athletic, pragmatic are the characteristic the young boys are taught to adopt so they can be able to find a good wife and girls are sadly perpetuating those stereotype also. We all know many women who would not date  a man without a car and that tells us a lot about our perception of what a man should bring to the table to “impress” us. Those toxics behaviors are creating a never ending circle of dependence and the perpetuation of stereotypes concerning both gender. For the woman place in the household to be change, we must also change our perception of the man of the house. Lets raise and teach our children equity and reflect on what type of household and relationship we wish to create  for some changes to happen.

Yasmine Meddane

Both Jessica Valenti and Bell Hook tried to showcase the inequality every women faces everyday and the vision of the public ( especially man wise ) toward feminism. Feminism is portrayed as a white, lesbian and angry movement of jealous woman envying what the man have. Both author are trying to redefined feminism, their vision of it and the relevance of this fight. Valenti really emphasize on the fact that the woman status and place can only be changed if she decides herself to change. She also challenge the perception the feminist movement as an individualist. Meanwhile, Hook is really trying to prove to the reader that feminism is an inclusive movement that can only achieve its goal if  women stands as a group to fight for their rights. Both are also saying and emphasizing on the fact that man can also be feminist and that they have to end the stereotype of the angry feminist to really understand the movement. They are also both exposing the discrimination projected on certain individual in the movement and the hypocrisy of its members. 

Feminism is a movement that will only be achieved if the nation comes united as one and put their sexual, racial, and cultural differences aside to finally achieve a goal of equity. Without this effort from any individual, the fight will not which will be engendering discrimination, inequity and racism tension around the world.  The fight Is yet to be over and the authors are well aware of it. Those articles didn’t change my perspective of feminism but only made my conviction about the feminism movement stronger. For me a feminism is defined as a unique individual fighting to the equality of sex in any field where fairness is required.

I want to end this blog by stating something hat Valenti said that really stuck with me. She said : there is no doubt woman made progress but just because we get to vote and have the “right” to work doesn’t mean things are peachy keen”. That paragraph and sentence really made me proud because a lot of women think that there is noting to fight for anymore but she says and we can even see in our daily life  that the problem of sex injustice isn’t solve and that we still have a long way to go for equity.

The society dating back all the way to the 17th century was a very different time. The Europeans came and they met with the aboriginals for the first time. The European school of through at the time was that women had to follow in the footsteps of their husbands, be a virgin before marriage, and not have a voice about many things. Whereas, with the aboriginals in this time period, it was very socially acceptable to have premarital sex, women had their own voice, and women had their own place in society, contributing to their economy. In comparison, their views and social norms were very different and the Europeans were appalled when they saw how women were “allowed” to behave.

Furthermore, the way western society is now, has a lot of similarities and differences to back in the day between the Europeans and the aboriginals. In a lot of countries still to this day, women are treated the way that the Europeans treated their women. But in Canada, views differ. It is becoming an increasingly normal way of life to have premarital intercourse before even ever considering marriage, women can have any job they choose, women do have a voice and women can be as sexually promiscuous as we want. But, even though this is the case, doesn’t mean that everyone thinks that way. Many people in Canada still believe that sex should be kept for marriage and have a lot more conservative views.

The aspects of indigenous culture that struck me the most is the fact that back in the 17th century and beyond, having sex before marriage, with many partners, and not only for procreation, but for pleasure was acceptable. I had never thought of it that way and it is interesting. We can learn a lot from the indigenous peoples and the way their society was run. We can learn and understand that women weren’t always treated inferior and instead valued and equally encorporated into the society, unlike the Europeans.

According to Hooks, “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, an oppression.” She believes that feminism isn’t about being anti-male, instead it is about sexism. In the same way, Valenti brings forth the same opinion as Hooks and she also believes that it isn’t about being anti-male, however it is about speaking up against basic issues concerning women and the inequality that they are faced with on a daily basis. Hooks took more of a subtle and professional approach in order to explain the issues concerning the stigma around feminism, whereas Valenti was very blunt and direct in her way of approaching the subject. She emphasized more on the myths around feminism such as feminists are usually lesbians. 

Based on both readings, I believe that a feminist can be either a man or woman that is willing to speak up about gender inequality concerning both sexes. They live their life based on the ideologies of feminism such as equal gender pay, equal household chores, equal rights,etc. Before this reading, I always thought a feminist was always a courageous woman that is able to stand up and question the gender stereotypes that she is faced with by her family, friends and coworkers. 

At the very beginning of Valenti’s essay, she puts a very common ideology that I’ve never thought my whole life but when I read it, the passage shocked me and put things into perspective. She first asks what’s the worst possible thing you can call a woman? Then, she asked what’s the worst possible thing you can call a guy? Both answers indicated that being a woman was considered as an insult. This section struck to me because it is something that occurs on a daily basis, however it taken lightly because it is normalized. Before the readings, I thought that a feminist was an individual that strictly followed all the ideologies that I have mentioned in the previous sentence, however after Valenti’s reading, I found out that a feminist is someone that feels strongly about  gender inequalities towards women and it was that simple as that.

Both authors have been faced with lots of criticism, however I really respect their ability to stay strong amidst it all. I find it really brave to put their views out there and continue to do what they love, despite getting criticized by strangers. 

You probably have already heard group a women say ‘equal pay for equal work’ or even ‘stop work discrimination against women’. You also might have heard politicians saying: “for every dollar a man makes, a women makes 77 cents”.

They all refer to the gender pay gap, the fact that working women are paid less than working men. (equal pay for equal work is a bit different)

However, you also might have heard people saying that the wage gap between both genders was a myth since it is illegal to pay someone less based on their gender; maybe you even heard that men work more hours than women, so it is normal that men win more than women.

In Canada, the Canadian Human Rights Act of 1977 states that all Canadians have the right to equality, equal opportunity, fair treatment, and an environment free of discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, marital status and family status.

Nevertheless, a bit more than 40 years later, some people still fight for this equality, especially in the workforce. So many people seem to have different ideas on the subject that it is almost impossible Is there really a wage gap ? If so, is this gap about purely about discrimination against women? We will find out, but first let’s find out how the wage gap is even calculated.

How Do We Even Calculate the Gender Pay Gap ?

The gender wage gap is often used as an indicator of inequality between men and women. As the Canadian Women’s Foundation [1] states it very well, “[the] gender wage gap is typically measured in three different ways:

• Compare the annual earnings, by gender, for both full-time and part-time workers. On this basis, women workers in Canada earned an average of 69 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2016.³ This measurement results in the largest wage gap because more women work part-time, and part-time worke[r]s typically earn less than full-time workers.
• Compare the annual earnings of full-time workers. On this basis, women workers in Canada earned an average of 75 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2016. ⁴
• Compare the hourly wages by gender, including those for part-time workers. On this basis, women earned an average of 87 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2015.⁵

No matter which calculation is used, the wage gap clearly exists for women in Canada. “

How Can This Happen ?

The gender wage gap, the difference of remuneration between working men and women, are clearly visible in the statistics. There are so many variables that affect the situation that it is difficult to identify all the causes of the differences between in earnings between men and women.

However, we can see that in every way that the wage gap is calculated it does not take in account the actual job that is done by these individuals. It is known that men tend to be over represented in the STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) field, jobs that tend to be paid relatively more than the average salary. On the other hand, women tend to be over represented in the social work field, jobs that are generally paid less than those in the STEM field.

Also, men tend to work more hours than their female counterparts as the U.S. Bureau Labor of Statistics concluded in 2018 [2]. Men worked on average 8.27 hours in an average weekday compared to 7.66 hours for women. Notice that more women work in part-time jobs.

In 2012, the AAUW, a feminist organization published a study that was meant to identify what are the causes of the pay gap between men and women in the US. [3]. It found that the supposed wage gap of 77 percent (in the U.S. at the time) shrinks to 93.4 percent after taking in account hours, occupation, college major, employment sector and other factors associated with pay.

The unexplained could be because of discrimination; however, it is impossible to measure how much it influences the pay gap.