I have been working hard to incorporate the following Learning Objectives into my critical reflections for my Intro to Sociology class. Having practice in these areas has been beneficial to my writing in this class. Adding the appropriate MLA citations is shown in my sample along with quotation and analysis from outside sources.

Learning Objectives

  1. Be able to integrate their ideas with those of others using summary, paraphrase, quotation, analysis, and synthesis of relevant sources.
  2. Document their work using appropriate conventions (MLA).
  3. Control sentence-level error (grammar, punctuation, and spelling).

Sample of Writing:

The article entitled Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale discusses origins of the sexual division of labor during the time slave trade was starting to catch on. The article explains the history of the processes of colonization and “housewifization” and analyzes the contemporary division of labor and the role which women play in labor. Women are portrayed as the cheapest producers and consumers. Slave owners believed that having a pregnant slave naturally reproducing more slaves was a greater cost than just purchasing slaves from the slave market. Between different ethnicities women were expected to either domesticated and forced to bear their husbands heirs or discriminated if they bared children while being enslaved. Throughout various times in history the roles of women have changed. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries women’s roles in the workforce became more prevalent. Throughout history the roles and housewifization have constantly been changing however, the treatment of women has always been disreputable throughout their changing roles. Maria Mies applies her theory to the globalized world and responds to those who don’t necessarily support her claims.

In history class when discussing the period of slavery women were not touched upon as individuals as much as slavery in a broad scope. Mies expresses ideas about women that I have not necessarily examined in depth until reading her article. According to Eugene Wolters, an analyst of Mies and her works states that “women are not one particular group of human beings among others; they are those who, in every time and in every society, have produced life on this planet and on whose work, therefore, all other activities depend” (Wolters 2014). Mies is able to relate women from different cultures, time periods, and ethnicities and explain how they all share common ground with how they were treated. I agree with the various points Mies discussed in her article. Some women consider motherhood to be a wonderful gift that God has given them. Women have the ability to create and enslaved women had that gift taken away from them. Slave owners across the world believed that “it was cheaper to purchase than to breed” during the 1760’s until the 1800’s (1998-90). Enslaved “women who were found pregnant were cursed and ill-treated” because they were only able to generate half of the amount of profit they would have made if they were not carrying a child (1998-90). Being a woman, I have always wanted to have a child and family one day. However, Mies also discusses how women in different cultures were forced to have children. Some European women “were domesticated and ideologically manipulated into wifehood and motherhood as their natural vocation” (1998-92). Mies does a good job at supporting her feminist movement by providing information on both sides of how women were being treated and explaining that neither way is ethical. From reading various sources I began to question how women can be expected to play various roles whether it be a housewife, factory worker, and or slave during this time periods while men are only expected to fit one roel? Men are usually considered to be the ones to “bring home the bacon” and that’s it. Mies portrays the idea that women are very strong and are capable of more than what is expected of them. According to Judith Lorber, author of “Night to his Day”: The Social Construction of Gender, “gender is so pervasive that in our society we assume it is bred into our genes. Most people find it hard to believe that gender is constantly created and re-created out of human interaction, out of social life, and is the texture and order of that social life (2014-54). I question why we still fall into these gender norms while we realize that gender doesn’t always define how we act as a person? If gender is a topic that relates to everyday life why is it uncomfortable for most to talk about and usually avoided in order to stray from arguments?

Works Cited

 

Mies, Maria. 1986. “Colonization and Housewifization,” in Patriarchy and Accumulation

onWorld-Scale, 90-96, 100, 103-07.

Lorber, Judith. 2014. “Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender,” 54-62.

Wolters, Eugene. “Read Me: Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale.” Critical-Theory, 10 Sept. 2014,www.critical-theory.com/read-me-patriarchy-and-accumulation-on-a-world-scale/.