I'm putting up two blog posts simultaneously on what it means to be a woman, as well as what it means to be a man.

There are some obvious physical differences between men and women. However, there are also complex and ever-changing cultural, parental, relational, and other expectations that women and men have to navigate.

When it comes to women:

1. What does it mean to be a woman?
2. What cultural, parental, relational, or other expectations are there for women today?
3. In your culture, what changes do you see in regard to how people perceive what it means to be a woman?
4. How do you believe women and men are different? The same?
   

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Jennifer: ... http://www.sustainliving.org

1. To me being a woman means I am able to multi-manage and keep my family together. I support my husband and he, in return supports me. I feel required to be the safety net of my family all the time. I must be the comfort, the structure, the mediator that keeps everyone on the same page.

2. For women today, we are expected to be all in one. The lover, the manager, the caregiver, the cook, the cleaner, the sex-goddess, the friend, the supporter, I could go on and on. We are also expected, as a society to bring in money on the same level as the man, but also keep up the housework and take care of the children. My parents expect me to succeed personally, society expects me to be a supermom, my husband wants me to be happy, and my friends want me to fail where they fail within ourselves and through our children.

3. I have mixed feelings about what most people consider a woman to be. Many times, what I say is disregarded until a man says the same thing; then it is fact. However, some actually accept that I am more than a mom, but they are rare. I often times am asked if I understand something, such as what a baler or generator is, even though I am an environmental scientist and have a great deal of knowledge on these items. That is with men, with other woman, I am in competition, with whose house is cleaner, whose husband is more successful, who kids are smarter or more athletic, who dresses better, etc. It is very exhausting actually with the women.

4. I have a hard time thinking men are the same as women. I do not think in general men can be faithful. Please do not bash me, no man, other than my current husband, has been faithful - not my father, not my grandfather, not my brothers, not previous partners. I struggle with this one. The other thing I see different, aside from physical attributes, is the way of thinking. Men, to me, think very laterally and women are much more complex. As for feelings, we are the same. My husband has shown me that we are much closer and much farther apart at the same time. Very interesting to me.

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June 07, 2008
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