Promoting womens capabilities: cultural norms

Essay by moralesdadUniversity, Master'sA+, October 2006

download word file, 2 pages 3.5

Martha Nussbaum's, "Promoting Women's Capabilities", addresses statements of women's potential human functions in cross-cultural norms. One can agree women forty years ago lacked the capability for self-drive to achieve many individual goals. I would like to focus my argument on a passage that clearly make an unjust judgment about women, "Women lack fundamental functions of human life" PG 241.

Traditional culture plays a big part in the role of women's lives. In the Mexican culture there are norms women follow; modesty, obedience and self-sacrifice. Mothers imbed the idea of these three to there young daughters at a young age. Call it the circle of life, the role of a women traditionally passing on the fundamental function of wives and mothers. "By contrast, the norms proposed by feminists are seem as suspiciously Western because they involve emphasis of individuality, choice and opportunity." PG 245. Feminists have seen and continue to see, traditional norms, summit an unequal human rights to improve the women's capabilities it should deserve as leaders for tomorrow.

Forty years ago majority of women were submissive to opportunity of achieving independent goals. As change, over the years, more women began to choose to avoid a family setting of their mothers. The educated pushed the movement into a reality, in my opinion, choosing to position themselves at the head of the seat and run a business atmosphere that male-dominance ran for years.

Choices are a difficult decision to make for women of today. Specifically, in my culture, choices that determine the future of a women's live. " Languages don't harm people, but cultural practices frequently do. Are the cultural values in question worth preserving? This entails a general cross-cultural framework of assessment that will tell us when we are better off letting a practice die." PG 245. This statement verifies...