Cultural Analysis: Gender Roles as Example

There is a very interesting map on the Washington Post website that gives a brief historical, worldly perspective of Gender. 

How can such a map help your critical thinking about gender, and thus, about understanding more about various world views? 

• What are gender roles? 

• A gender role is a theoretical construct in the social sciences and humanities that refers to a set of social and behavioral norms that, within a specific culture, are widely considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex. Socially accepted gender roles differ widely between different cultures. Proponents of gender role theory assert that observed gender differences in behavior and personality characteristics are, at least in part, socially constructed, and therefore, the product of socialization experiences; this contrasts with other models of gender that assert that gender differences are "essential" to biological sex. Gender differences exist in almost all societies. With differences in the norms adopted, this suggests that gender differences are, at least partly, influenced by culture.^[1]

Cultural Analysis of Marstal: gender roles as a subtopic of "way of life"

• What are different general roles in Marstal, and where are those roles constructed--based on the textual evidence? (Such a question is multilayered, of course)

Cultural Analysis of Marstal: other subtopics of "way of life"

• What are other cultural topics that are discussed within the novel? (We have started to discuss culture, already, in a more probative light.)