History

Gender relations can be defined in relation to culture. It is the way in which society describes rights, duties and generally how women and men relate to one another. Throughout history, the gender relations between women and men have been marred by problems obviously affecting the perceptions of each to the other. As gender relation is defined by the society, then, all the problems that affect the society also directly or indirectly affect how male and females relate to one another. Men and women are all very different not only biologically but also in the social concept thus the reason why the society assigns them different gender roles.

In her article, Collins Patricia argues that all the types of oppression that affect people are closely connected (Levine, 2006). She puts it clearly that these oppressions affects people differently depending on their class, gender or race. In America, the form of oppression a white woman used to go through was different from that of a black woman. Being white meant that her class was better and this placed her in a better position. African American women were oppressed most of the times not because of their poor status but because of their race.  Arising from the observation that they were intertwined, this paper will focus on the effects of classism, racism, heterosexism and other oppressions to gender relations and enhance its understanding.

In America, as Levine (2006) explains, this aspect of race and gender relations says that the way a white man treats a white woman is different from how he treats a black woman. The latter works for him in return she gets ill-treated, socially and economically which is a total contrast to the privileges of the white woman.  Despite the fact that both are women, their rights and roles are determined by their color thus the reason racism in America is said to have affected gender roles to a very great extent. American Jew women suffered prejudice and discrimination especially during the great depression in 1929.

They were oppressed just because they were a minority. The Jews in America helped the Blacks fight for their rights but the latter joined the Islam community. As expected, a problem therefore arose between the Jews and the Blacks and they could not relate well. Anti Semitism thus affected the relationship between different races. However, the situation today is different as anti-Semitism has declined not only in America but also in other continents like Europe.

In most societies especially in native America, heterosexism accepted norm of the time. All men were expected to marry and marry women. There was no place for lesbians. This meant that all women were supposed to be married by men ignoring the fact that there were lesbians (Halberstam, 1998).

This created a rift in the society and between men and women as well. The argument was that lesbians were not really women as they had refused to interact normally with men. Even the women who were not lesbians could not identify with them. In North America, there are a number of children born as hermaphrodites as Preves (2002) reveals in his studies.  In such cases, heterosexism is a form of oppression to them and greatly affects them as the society cannot define their gender roles adequately because they are neither males nor females.

History records that gender relations in addition to being dictated by ones culture was also affected by other issues. Rodgers  Andrew (1997) argue that, the problem of gender oppression among the white may be far from being a problem in women of other races. While white women feminists were advocating for equality in opportunities and chances with men, women from other races were advocating for equity. The latter aspired to be treated as women, to be respected, protected and even provided for thus the contradiction between the two groups of women.

According to Rodgers  Andrew (1997), women are the future of any society politically, socially, economically and also biologically. Consequently, any form of oppression is always directed to them if at all it has to meet its goals and objectives. Due to this, women are the main victims. This can be attributed to their vulnerability as they are always submissive to men. While men are supposed to be leaders and aggressive women are meant to be followers and passive. In a society where classism is the order of the day they have been observed to belong to the lowest class either due to their race or due to lack of equal opportunities in education or in the job market. Politically, they are under represented and this aggravates their problems as there is actually no one to fight for their rights.

In conclusion, it would be right to say that any form of oppression affects women either incidentally or accidentally. Alia (1994) in her article Inuit Women and the Politics of Naming in Nunavut describe this clearly. She says that even in very trivial matters like naming women are not involved and more so they are even named in their absence by men who were supposed to be the head of the households. In some communities, names were given without giving any consideration to gender such that it was possible to name a female child.