The Womans Role as the Helper - Essay Example

The Woman’s Role as the Helper The concept of the female role as the helper to men is an old and persistent image that can be found in and exampled from some of the oldest texts. In the story of Adam and Eve, the role of the female was defined by being created to assist the male. Her creation is not only suggested to be as an inferior to man through her role as helper, but through her moral inferiority that defined the fall of the human race out of the grace of God and caused the expulsion from the Garden of Eden (Schearing and Ziegler 432).

In the way in which the story is told, the female is not only the helper because of God’s suggestion of her role, but because her actions have insinuated that she is naturally inferior and without the good sense to make a responsible choice. As the religious experience within the Judeo-Christian cultures has been founded on a philosophy of the inferiority of women, the role of women has been to take a secondary position to men or launch a battle to fight through the stereotypes to become leaders.

In a book published in 1917, Helen Bennett wrote that “Every demand is made upon the secretary’s imagination, her ingenuity, her versatility, her adaptability, her genius. That her shorthand must be rapid and accurate, her typing correct and artistic, her office methods modern and efficient, her knowledge of detail and of her subject matter endless” (167). Bennett wrote of nurses, newspaper women, and secretaries, giving them Client Last Name 2all the roles of helpers, but with an understanding that in those roles they would do the work that made the difference.

Women have been working in roles that were defined conceptually as helping roles throughout history. These roles have included those of wife, secretary, nurse, elementary education teachers, and as love interest. All these roles have had a cultural insinuation as being roles of support to the male needs so that the male could be free to rule the world in whatever capacity his vocation would deem. This role, however, has been always seen as inferior. This has led to lower wages and lower levels of respect for work that has been done.

Sexuality-based theory in regard to the work place suggests that “the main engine of misogyny is the way in which intercourse has been constructed so that the man is the aggressor and is on top, (while) the woman is passive and is beneath the man” (MacKinnon and Siegel 162). It has been suggested that this theory explains the philosophy that has ruled the workplace as the Sexuality-based theory suggests that it is the role for the man to be the lead, while the passivity of the woman puts her in the role of the subordinate.

This feminist viewpoint, while somewhat blatant and simplistic, is also an accurate and poignant description of the way in which the male and female have experienced their roles within the workplace. It is a classic way to view the male and female roles where the man is the boss in the big office with his hard working secretary in the outer office. This has been replicated in the media as seen in countless films and fictional scenarios that reflect the overall philosophy of the culture. The female role has been traditionally seen from the point of view that she owes her existence to Adam’s rib, therefore being an extension of his needs and wants.

In overcoming this role, the female gender has had to work to establish their Client Last Name 3own identity within the public world as deserving respect for the ability to make good choices and to function well in a managerial position. The cultural adaptation to the roles that were established through the way in which the story of Genesis has been told has determined a hard and exhausting road for women in terms of establishing enough respect in order to be viewed as capable of being in leadership roles.

Client Last Name 4Works CitedBennett, Helen M. Women and Work; The Economic Value of College Training. New York: Appleton, 1917. MacKinnon, Catharine A., and Reva B. Siegel. Directions in Sexual Harassment Law. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. Schearing, Linda S., and Valarie H. Ziegler. Eve and Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.