Week 12: Domestic Division of Labor

Family and work are the two main concerns of all married women all over the world. The struggle gets even tougher when one has kids and more so when one is a single parent. On completing the chart 'Who completes which task in your family', I realized my mom does majority of the household work and some chores that I never even thought of before! The rise in women labor force has brought a change in the roles and expectations of the gender, both at workplace and family. Even though men have started sharing a lot of daily chores; not in a lot of families will you see the husband cooking, doing the laundry, or cleaning up the house. The men in the families would take up occasional tasks like lawn mowing, washing the car or much fun chores like giving the kids a bath etc.
The fact is household and child care responsibilities are still applicaple to women even if she has to get to work at 9:00am and doesnt return home until 5:00pm. I believe it is the society's expectations and social assumptions of gender roles. The social agents such as one's own family, schools, books, media etc. all assume and preach that women are the nurturing and the care taking sex. Women who are not able to keep up to the expectations feel gulity of not being able to do so.

Week 11: Is our world secularizing??

 After I read the news everyday and today after reading the chapter, I believe our assumtion that we are secularizing is a absolutely false. The world today as I see it, is frantically religious as always! Even though there is a huge population of atheists (1.1 billion according to Adherents.com), secularization is not a dominant trend. As religious organizations such as Churches and Temples are losing their former social and political influence; religion still remains significant often in new and unfamiliar forms. Not all of us go to a Church or a Temple every week, but most of us do believe in going on pilgrimages once in a while.
I believe that having some sort of faith is not wrong as long as it serves the purpose of preaching peace and satisfies the yearning of our 'soul' for purpose and meaning. However, when religion leads to some sort of fundamentalism is where the problem arises. I come from India, where communal riots between the Hindus and the Muslims is a common sight. 9/11 was a catastrophe which has left indelible images on our minds. There are many such catastrophic events that have proved time and again that a portion of the society/world has gone furiously religious as ever. Hence, in an era where people are killing each other in the name of religion and where the propenents of cosmic warfare justify the loss of innocent lives as serivng God's larger purpose, I am afraid we still have to go a long way to say that our world is secularizing.

Week 10: A Tale of Two Families

After more than two hundred years of continuous presence in North America, African Americans are still in a miserable situation due to the residues of slavery and widespread discrimination and prejudice against them for a very long time. The story ' A Tale of Two Cities' throws light on how many African Americans face problems in every step of their lives. And unfortunately this is passed on to their children and hence many future generations are effected who in turn have to struggle to make a living. Unfortunately, not everyone are able to be a part of th so called 'American Dream'. Not everyone gets the same access to home ownership, good schools, health services and other resources. I do believe strongly in the statement that  - Wealth is not just luxury; its also the starting point for the next generation. I have been fortunate enough by the grace of God to be able to start my career without the pressure of supporting my family. However, I have seen how financial support in the beginning of one's career actually helps a person start at a much raised platform than those who don't have it at all.  The story emphasizes on how important the access to good resources is essential for a comfortable start.