Women's Roles in Different Cultural Settings

The following four works examine women's roles in several cultural settings and offer various perspectives on menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth. In most societies, pregnancy is a time of vulnerability--a trait often considered particularly feminine. But at the same time, women of many cultures see their (value( in their ability to produce children and continue a familial and cultural lineage. According to Lucile F. Newman, however, this view is less strong in the United States, where women regard their husbands and the marital unit as the "nexus of emotional strength" during pregnancy (Newman 87).

Brigitte Jordan, in her study of Birth in Four Cultures, recognizes birth not solely as a physiological function but as a biosocial event. This approach is justified by noting that while the physiology of birth is universally the same, "parturition is accomplished in strikingly different ways by different groups or people" (Jordan 2). Since birth is also universally recognized as a life crisis event, the period is everywhere a time of consensual shaping and social patterning. In most societies, she notes, birth and the postpartum period are considered a time of vulnerability for mother and child.

Jordan believes that cross-cultural analysis is important because the physiological and social problems associated with parturition require practices and beliefs consistent in that particular cultural context, which leads a system's practitioners into believing they have the

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i's "The Transition to Parenthood" to suggest that a positive status change occurs in American society at the time of marriage, but that women experience a lowering of self-esteem with the transition to parenthood (the first child). She notes, "The retention of a high level of self-esteem may depend upon the adequacy of earlier preparation for major adult roles" (Newman 86). Thus, men(s training adequately prepares them for their primary adult roles in the occupational system, as it does for those women who opt to participate significantly in the work world. For women who accept primary adult roles within the family system, however, there is a lack of social support for the parental role and a lack of status, leading to lowered self-esteem. Women in India, on the other hand, regard fertility and childbearing as the keys to women's status. At marriage, an Indian woman joins her husband's lineage, entering the multigenerational family unit as the member with least tenure. After the birth of her first child, especially if it is a boy, her acceptance in the family is assured. "It is through demonstrated fertility that she achieves status in her new family. Her life experience is one of fertility continually noted and valued" (

Category: Psychology - W