Gender Norms during Colonial Period in North America Essay

Gender Norms during Colonial Period in North America - Essay Example However, with the introduction of industrialism and larger cities by the end of eighteenth century, there had been greater changes in the gender norms, especially with regards to labor forces. When more men worked at industries and firms, the women were left home as their work was deemed unnecessary. The social values of the time also contributed to the thought that women were not necessarily in need of work. Such a situation, as devaluating women’s labor prompted them to search new understanding of themselves. In 1629, there was much controversies over the gender identity of servant Thomas Hall, a resident of the area they called â€Å"James Cittie† (Brown, 1995). All started when the recent migrant, Hall became the subject matter of gossips about his sexual identity and behavior. Hall’s case gave a break through to compare popular concepts of sexual difference and changes in gender norms throughout the years. Many had argued that medico-scientific theories of g ender differences did not include any anatomical incommensurability. Scholars before the nineteenth century came up with some Galenic framework that gave importance to parallelism and the potential mutability of the gender. The consequential absence of coherent biological foundation for sex contributed to the innate volatility of perceptions of sexual difference. ... Several years of warfare with the local Indians finally could do something on the Indian attack upon the English population. The attack discolored the early image of colony as an ecstasy for settlers. Issues like rampant disease, maltreated servants, and hard labor disheartened the female migrants, which in turn exacerbated the skewed sex ratio and lawlessness. The absence of dedicated ministers and supporting churches across the region added to the colony’s reputation as godlessness and wickedness. By 1629, there had been common practice of cultivating tobacco across the colonial economy. It was fashionable in the royal and upper-class circles of societies throughout Europe and during the period, the English women and the African laborers were also commonly found hoeing rows of tobacco. Therefore, as Brown points out, the task of characterizing the gender difference was set on the shoulders of local traditions, religious and legal institutions, as the scientific discourses co ncentrated on anatomical parallels. Taking substantially from the religious and medical texts that maintained a perspective of women’s inferiority, legal bodies preserved a gender distinction in matters of legal procedures related to marriages, property, and liability for crime. Furthermore, as Ulrich points out, the stricter the rules of evidence, there was not likely any chances of juries taking the word of a woman against the word of a man into consideration, unless he is from an already stigmatized community; the assumptions were that women were silly creatures, were easily vulnerable to the rivalries of men around them, and given to spite (121). However, a similar reaffirmation of gender

Information Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Information Law - Essay Example It has been implemented in most part of the world and most of the states are becoming more and more transparent to the people. Globalization has ensured that ideas, goods, information, capital and people are moving across the nations. Local concepts and ideas are quickly made global in this era of globalization. This law is the result of socio-economic and technological forces that has made the government to be more responsive. This has been created and supported because of the ongoing export and import of knowledge across the countries. Shared assumptions and beliefs help in solving the problem at hand. While all these are the reasons for bringing in the Access to information law in many of the countries across the world, it is good to analyze the reasons behind forming this law and whether the law has achieved what it set out to do. The major objective of this exercise was to make the government more trustable (Heald & Hood 2006). This report presents the analysis and the outcome of this analysis towards this target by the government. One of the major reasons for the introduction of FOI by most of the countries is to bring in transparency in governance. Most of the governments are able to get away with moderate or low performance levels because they are not being transparent. When the government becomes transparent in its work, people of the country will be able to ensure that the government works efficiently. This would also ensure service delivery of appropriate standards. There will also be a greater understanding of the governmental decisions and the reasons behind specific actions. On many occasions such decisions and the reasons behind such decisions are largely hidden. This would bring about a condition of superiority or alienation of the public resulting in large scale discontent with the government over a period of time (Colin Bennett Aug 2001). On the contrary, with the increase in transparency levels of the operation of the government, people get to know the reasons behind their actions. This results i n better understanding and appreciation. This would ensure that the government decision making is open for comments and public evaluation. Therefore, the executives of the government would tend to make reasonably accurate decisions which would also ensure that the government operates efficiently catering to the needs of the people more closely. This in turn, would build confidence in the government and public trust. In a broader sense, the government becomes more accountable. All this is made possible by the transparency of governance brought about by this law. Therefore, this forms the major purpose of the act. The transparency in administration and governance is a natural progression in the civil rights over the centuries (Leone & Anrig 2003). With the improvement in the technological frontier and the extent of improvement in the communication has resulted in an increased reason to go for large scale transparency in governance. The impact of information and communication technology in the way information is shared has been profound. This has led to more ways by which people are able to access information. The number of sources has drastically increased. The interactions between people have also grossly increased. It has become cheaper to interact than what it was earlier. An NGO is able