Gender: Judging Mothers Although Women Term Paper

After a literature review of existing studies on the subject, "we have clear indications that breast-feeding helps prevent an extra incident of gastrointestinal illness in some kids -- an unpleasant few days of diarrhea or vomiting, but rarely life-threatening in developed countries" noted Hana Rosin in a controversial article in The Atlantic (Rosin 2009). Despite graphic public advertisements that link breast-feeding with putting a child at great medical risk, the evidence is less certain than one might assume. Although breast-feeding has been credited with everything from improving babies' IQs to preventing obesity, the ability to prevent these conditions with breast-feeding remains uncertain, particularly when women's economic status is taken into consideration when evaluating the studies (Rosin 2009).

Cultural biases against trusting a woman to actively make choices about how they will be mothers may have more to do with the censure of women who choose to discount so-called common wisdom and scientific advice -- spanning from decisions to seek out a midwife rather than an obstetrician to the decision to return to work. In response to this idealization of motherhood two trends have emerged. Many scholars have reported a return to 'traditional motherhood' even in the attitudes of elite young women: "At the height of the women's movement and shortly thereafter, women were much more firm in their expectation that they could somehow combine full-time work with child rearing" but more and more women in Ivy League universities say that they intend to leave work after the birth of their first child (Storey 2005). On the other hand, particularly after the recession, many women became the sole providers for their family after their husband was 'laid off' from work, given the fact that traditionally male employment fields of finance and construction were the hardest-hit by the recession.

The culture of hyper-vigilance of how women become mothers and how they mother has continued, particularly of middle-class working women. Of course, women who are members of the ranks of the working poor have no choice but to work to support their families -- the standards remain different for women of privileged classes who are choosing not to work 'for their children,' while women who choose not to work in arduous, low-paying jobs while their children are young are often criticized for accepting public assistance. So-called 'hovercraft' parenting has replaced the feminine mystique and medical knowledge has become a way to engage in surveillance of female behavior, just as psychological discourse was used in the 1950s and 1960s. Women have internalized many of these beliefs and guilty, even while, statistically speaking, they are more economically empowered than ever before.

Should anthropologists study terrorism?

Anthropologists can bring valuable insights to studying terrorism as a cultural phenomenon. Instead of studying it as a security issue, as is common in international politics, anthropologists can study terrorism's roots within specific cultures. Although terrorism is widespread around the world, it is not useful to see all types of terrorism as the same, or all terrorist groups as being organized in the same manner. Only by studying terrorist groups as an anthropological case study can we truly appreciate the type and level of threat posed by different radical movements.

References

Baram, Marcus. (2006). Moms-to-be get mixed message about drinking. ABC News.

Retrieved June 30, 2011 at http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2654849&page=1

Hanley, J.J. (2002). Refrigerator mothers. PBS: POV. Retrieved June 30, 2011 at http://www.pbs.org/pov/refrigeratormothers/interview.php

Italy launches cocktail glass poster. (2011). The Telegraph. Retrieved June 30, 2011 at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/7764241/Italy-launches-foetus-in-cocktail-glass-poster-to-stop-women-drinking.html

Read, Katy. (2005). Mommy madness. Salon. Retrieved June 30, 2011 at http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2005/02/23/warner/index.html

Rosin, Hana. (2009). The case against breast-feeding. The Atlantic. Retrieved June 30, 2011 at http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/04/the-case-against-breast-feeding/7311/2/

Storey, Laurie. (2005). Many women at elite colleges set career paths to motherhood.

The New York Times. Retrieved June 30, 2011

http://dinhvutrangngan.com/teaching/Social_Economics/College_Women/Story%202005

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Whebbe, Emily Grace. (2011). Would he ask a married woman the same question? NPR.

Retrieved June 30, 2011 at http://www.npr.org/blogs/babyproject/2011/06/29/137482872/would-he-ask-a-married-woman-the-same-question?sc=fb&cc=fp