NAME DATE CLASS. Directions: Answer each of the following questions. Include in your answers the vocabulary words in parentheses.

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1 Vocabulary Activity Content Vocabulary Directions: Answer each of the following questions. Include in your answers the vocabulary words in parentheses. 1. What does biological determinism say about the importance of a person s sex? (biological determinism, sex) 2. In what sense does gender socialization shape gender identity? (gender socialization, gender identity) 3. The following people attend a corporate meeting: the president (a man); the board of directors (three men; two women); department heads (six men; two women); and the department heads administrative assistants (one man; seven women). There are eleven men and eleven women at the meeting. Is this an example of occupational sex segregation? Why or why not? (occupational sex segregation) 4. In industrial/technical societies, how does ageism tend to lead to age stratification? (Be specific.) (ageism, age stratification) Sociology and You 1

2 Vocabulary Activity cont. 5. What is sexism, and what would an interest group try to do about it? (sexism, interest group) Academic Vocabulary Directions: Complete each sentence with the best choice from the word list. (adaptive, aspect, somewhat, sphere, underlying) 6. People who do not try to make friends are likely to have a very small social. 7. The most stunning of this new building is the huge mural in the lobby. 8. Sexism and ageism are less common today than in the past, the professor said, but they still are causes for some unfair business practices. 9. When we had a sudden cold snap, my friend, an person, cheerfully exchanged his shorts and sandals for a wool jacket and heavy shoes. Directions: Write S in front of each word that is a synonym (a word with the same or nearly the same meaning) of the listed word and A for each word that is an antonym (a word with an opposite or nearly opposite meaning). (diminished, passive, prohibit, reinforce, utilize) 10. diminished decreased expanded weakened reduced enlarged 11. passive submissive compliant responsive neutral dynamic 12. prohibit allow forbid permit ban prevent 13. reinforce decrease intensify heighten brace weaken 14. utilize employ activate ignore use implement 2 Sociology and You

3 Culture Studies Activity Reading 15 Rwanda: A Nation Governed by Women Despite a growing emphasis on equality between the sexes in much of the world, women are still underrepresented in politics. In one surprising place, however, women have made up the majority of the parliament since This reading on women parliamentarians in Rwanda provides an illustration of women in government and how gender roles are changing in Rwanda in relation to the information presented in Chapter 10. Women have made significant advances in politics over the past few decades, with females having served as the head of state in many prominent countries, including Britain, India, Germany, Pakistan, and others. However, males tend to outnumber females in most parliaments (democratically-elected or otherwise) around the world. Indeed, there is only nation on earth in which females represent the majority of parliamentarians and the identity of this state may be highly surprising. In 2008, just fourteen years after a horrific genocidal civil war killed an astounding 800,000 people in a three-month period of unspeakable bloodshed, the tiny central African nation of Rwanda elected the world s first women-dominated legislature. While Rwanda s post-genocide Constitution set aside at least 30 percent representation for women in parliament, they initially held 44 out of 80 seats (a 55 percent rate). During the 2008 election, a Rwandan female voter named Anne Kayitesi explained to BBC: The problems of women are understood much better, much better by women themselves. You see men, especially in our culture, men used to think that women are there to be in the house, cook food, look after the children... but the real problems of a family are known by a woman and when they do it, they help a country to get much better. Women also grabbed one-third of all cabinet positions as well as the plum jobs of Supreme Court chief and speaker of parliament. As of November 2011, 56.3 percent of the Rwandan parliament comprised women, making it, by the far, the most female-friendly national legislature on the planet, according to the Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU). Women have also apparently taken a key role in restoring the nation s economy, particularly its coffee-growing sector (with scarce natural resources nor much manufacturing, agriculture is the dominant sector). In the wake of the devastating 1994 war, Rwandan women have aggressively moved to the forefront of rebuilding the nation. In 2008, Agnes Matilda Kalibata, minister of state in charge of agriculture, told western media: Rwanda s economy has risen up from the genocide and prospered greatly on the backs of our women. Bringing women out of the home and fields has been essential to our rebuilding. Sociology and You 1

4 Culture Studies Activity cont. In that process, Rwanda has changed forever.... We are becoming a nation that understands that there are huge financial benefits to equality. Indeed, there are many reports of women in Third World countries, including Rwanda, making better decisions than men with regard to household investments, family finances, etc. Winnie Byanyima, director of the United Nations Development Program s gender team, once told reporters: We have overwhelming evidence from almost all the developing regions of the world that [investment in] women make better economics. The women must be doing something right. While many nations in the west are mired in recessionary conditions, Rwanda s economy expanded by 8.8 percent in 2011, and is expected to climb another 7.5 percent this year, according to Central Bank Governor Claver Gatete. Between 2001 and 2010, the country s economy doubled in size, the World Bank stated. In a vote of confidence, the U.S. government agreed last month to ratify a new trade pact with Rwanda. The U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk praised Rwanda s economic recovery. I am proud to participate in the ratification of this treaty with our Rwandan partners, he said in a statement. This treaty will strengthen our two countries economic ties and enhance the confidence of U.S. investors in Rwanda, as well as Rwandan investors in the United States. It will also help to promote the new investment that is critical to Rwanda s economic development. We see Rwanda as a leader in seeking to transform its economy through open trade and investment. We hope that the U.S.-Rwanda bilateral investment treaty will serve as a model for future agreements with other African countries. According to reports, trade between Rwanda-U.S. reached $51-million in However, it could be argued that Rwandan women took control of their country s affairs simply because they had no other choice. Indeed, following the 1994 slaughter, so many men (both Tutsis and Hutus) were killed, that the country s gender profile tilted heavily in favor of women reportedly, by a percent basis. By 1999, when women proved themselves adept at starting up and operating profitable businesses, property laws were amended to permit female ownership of land and other assets. Crucially, Rwandan women also gained the right to inherit property. The very perception of women in Rwanda seems to have also dramatically improved. Last year, Daphrose Nyirasafali, national program officer for UNFPA, the UN s family planning and reproductive health organization, told Britain s Guardian newspaper: There used to be a lot of rapes, wife beating, male domination of women, boys sent to school and not girls. That has all changed, even in the countryside. 2 Sociology and You

5 Culture Studies Activity cont. Interestingly, according to the IPU, of the ten parliaments with the highest current female representation, only five are in the developed countries (Andorra, Sweden, Iceland, Finland and Norway). Perhaps even more startling, a significant number of African countries show up among the top twenty nations (aside from Rwanda, there is a heavy female presence in the governments of South Africa, Angola, Mozambique, Seychelles, Tanzania and Uganda). Among some of the dominant western countries, female representation is surprisingly low: France (18.9 percent); United Kingdom (22 percent); Greece (17.3 percent) and the United States (16.8 percent). Credit : Rwanda: The Only Government in the World Dominated by Women by Palash R. Ghosh. International Business Times, January 3, All rights reserved. Directions: Using information from the reading, answer the following questions. 1. Summarizing What political positions did Rwandan women hold after the election in 2008? 2. Explaining Since the 1994 genocide, how have laws regarding women in Rwanda changed? 3. Analyzing What effect has the changing roles of women in Rwanda had on the nation s economy? Sociology and You 3

6 Culture Studies Activity cont. 4. Hypothesizing The article refers to the fact that Rwanda is the only nation on earth with a majority female parliament as highly surprising. Why do you think it is considered surprising? What country or countries would you have expected instead? Thinking Like a Sociologist 5. Speculating In the United States, women make up less than 20 percent of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. If the percentages were to change, and suddenly men made up only 20 percent of each, how do you think the laws and policies passed by Congress would change? Examine your assumptions. Do you have data to back up your speculations, or are you basing your scenario on stereotypes? Topic for Research 6. Researching As of the 2010 election, there have been only 39 women who have served in the U.S. Senate since it was created in Choose one of them to research. How did she become a U.S. senator? Was she elected or appointed? What challenges did she face both as a candidate and a senator? Write your response on a separate piece of paper. 4 Sociology and You