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Instructions
Chapter 8 Journal – Gender and the Holidays
For this journal assignment, our class will examine gender roles during the holidays. Please take a look at the following articles from JSTOR Daily, here, and from Sociological Images, here.
Think of a Thanksgiving or other holiday celebration you had with your family, paying special attention to the gender roles associated with this holiday. 1) What do the men do during different parts of the day and evening? How do the women spend their time? What about the children: Do the boys and girls help their family members? 2) Take a look at the various rituals throughout the day, and think about whether they differ by gender. For instance, is the turkey carved at the dinner table, and who carves it? 3) According to your observations, did you find any kind of gender imbalance and/or difference in the preparation for this holiday?
Assignment: Write a summary of your observations and analysis of gender roles during one particular Thanksgiving—or pick another holiday you have celebrated with your family that involves cooking and eating a lot of food. Include in your summary what the gender roles revealed during the event.
Journal entries should be written in essay form, and will be evaluated based on their completeness in addressing the prompt, in the quality of the writing, and engagement of relevant reading from our textbook (audio and video are not accepted formats for journal entries).
