The difference between middle east and american women - Essay Example

Running Head: Middle East and American Women Middle East and American Women [Institute’s Middle East and American Women “It’sa mans world, But it wouldnt be nothing,Nothing without a woman or a girl”(Sandelands, 2001, pp. 2)Such are the lyrics of a 1960’s song, super hit in its time, by a famous American musician James Brown. In this chauvinistic world, the importance of women has usually been underplayed. Although women have almost the same role in all societies and face similar issues, ‘woman’ is not a homogenous word.

There is great variation in the two breeds of women – the Middle Eastern and the American – and although the problems may be the same for both, the way these women deal with them tends to vary.The difference between the two is evident when we look at the respective family structures, owing to the dissimilarity in the socialization and upbringings in both the societies and the Islamic nature of many of the Middle Eastern nations. The Middle Eastern women value the family system, get married at the age of around 16 to 25, may live in the joint family system, usually as housewives, and have 2 to 3 (or even more) children.

The American women are comparatively much more career oriented and less interested in making a family. They usually move out of their parent’s house and either live independently, in some cases, even as single mothers, or co-habit with a partner. The trend in the Middle East is largely of patriarchal families, whereas, in the U.S., the number of matriarchal families has duly increased over the years (Fernea, 1985).Maternal Mortality Rate in the United States in 2008 was reported to be “24 deaths in 100,000 live births and varies for the Middle Eastern women from 10 deaths (in 100,000 live births) in the United Arab Emirates, to 1400 deaths in Afghanistan” (Kelly & Breslin, 2010).

It is difficult to say who is healthier due to the variation in the Middle Eastern region itself; the stressed out, career-driven women of the United States are more prone to diseases, but they are also more aware of them and can, thus, obtain adequate medical treatment (Central Intelligence Agency, 2009).Economic conditions of women make sense when analyzed in juxtaposition to that of men. In the U.S., women’s conditions have improved ever since the Equal Pay Act of 1963, but even today, they earn approximately 23% less than men do.

In the Middle East, however, the gap between women and men’s rights, and their economic statuses, has reduced visibly (Kelly & Breslin, 2010). The Middle Eastern women have gone from being almost non-existent in the labor market to being present now; this accounts for the reportedly large leap in their economic conditions. In the U.S., conversely, the males and females have enjoyed cutthroat competition for a while and hence, relatively lesser improvement has been under notice.The U.S. literacy rate as per 2003 was 99% for the females while in the Middle Eastern nations the female literacy rate varied from 81.7% to 12.6% (Kelly & Breslin, 2010).

As mentioned earlier, since American women wish to be independent and have a career, the norm is to be highly educated. Societies in the Middle East, on the other hand, do not emphasize upon the need of education. Furthermore, the U.S. even has laws imposing free and compulsory education, which makes it almost impossible to stay illiterate (Central Intelligence Agency, 2009).Amongst all the difference between the two types of women, similarities exist in the facts that both have been considered inferior to the males, need to struggle for a status equal to that of the males, and have been working tirelessly towards improvement of their own statuses and conditions in society.

ReferencesCentral Intelligence Agency. (2009). The CIA World Factbook 2010. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.Fernea, E. W. (1985). “Women and the Family in the Middle East.” American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences. Volume 2, Issue 2, pp. 321-322.Kelly, S., and Breslin, J. (2010). Womens Rights in the Middle East and North Africa. Rowman & Littlefield.Sandelands, L. E. (2001). Male & Female in Social Life. Transaction Publishers.