I thought it was important to point out how gender notions are implemented in the smallest ways. Women are not the only care takers of children, men (aka fathers) are also care takers of children. It frustrates me how in our society, we assume that taking care of children is a woman's job. We demonstrate these assumptions in small but consistent ways. Next time you see an ad that has anything to do with children, pay attention to whether or not it has a woman or man. I think we might be surprised at how often these assumptions occur in our daily life.
This is so true. Gender notions infiltrate every single aspect of our lives to the extend we don't even notice it anymore. The image of a caretaker has always been a female yet there are a lot of fathers out there playing this role. It's such a pity that even in a driver's handbook (I'm assuming with all these directions) such mistake isn't corrected. Just another example of how society constructs gender.
ReplyDeleteGood job on picking this little but significant detail! I have to admit even I would probably not notice this assumption.
Yea shocking, huh? But to be honest, I’m not really that surprised. We live in a society where we are taught to apply gender stereotypes from a very young age. The fact these beliefs transcended to a DMV driver’s manual doesn’t shock me at all. You would think, given the so called progressive era we are living in, that the authors of such a manual would be a little bit more sensitive to gendering issues.
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