Alexis

__**GENDER INTERVIEW ESSAY:**__

// (Somewhere in here you need to make clear the narrator is a girl) // “One summer when I was about ten, I decided that I wanted to feed the pigs before going to church. We were up at my grandparents pig farm, filled with 360 pigs, and usually my four brothers were in charge of feeding them every morning. I wanted to be like my older brothers so my grandfather decided that he would let me feed them one morning before we went off to church. My grandfather called me Jerry, because he thought I was going to be a boy but when I asked him if I could do it, he was very proud of me. I remember he lifted my up into the pigpen, and all of a sudden all of the pigs came running over to me and knocked me over. They were crawling all over me and pushed me onto my back because they wanted to get their food. * My grandmother, being very religious, still had me go to church afterwards with my nice Sunday clothes all covered in dirt and pig prints.” (add more to scene--g'ma is furious?) This story was a perfect example of how boys are expected to do different things then girls are. That day at the farm, my mom wanted to do something that she was not expected to do and wanted to be just like her older brothers. Growing up, her father worked, because he was expected to, and her mother stayed at home taking care of the house and watching after six children. At home, her and her sister did chores in the kitchen, setting and clearing the table, while the boys took out the trash and helped the father fixing things around the house. My dad on the other hand grew up with two younger brothers so his mom did all the women work and the boys did the male jobs around the house with their father. (add in more about fathers life compared to mothers) As my mom began to get into the work force, the men always had high end jobs while the women worked at the lower end of business and were paid less then the men were. When my mom had me, she quit her job so she would be able to raise my brother and me but also look after the house. Even though she is not really in the work force today, she still believes that women are not paid as much as men and that the men usually do more work then the women even though there is not a reason why this is. She thinks that women are given more time off and there is more of an opportunity for them to work at home. She believes that men are better off in the business world and that women are more often put into a hard decision between choosing if they want tot stay home and raise the kids, or if they want to continue working. My moms’ life growing up shows a perfect example of your typical jobs in a house. The mother is at home cooking and cleaning while the father is out working to bring home money for the family. Today, you see more women going out to work, but mainly you still see the men out working for their family. The most interesting thing that my mom said when I was talking to her was that “after men have a baby they get to just go back to work and don’t have to think about if they want to give up their job or not. Women of the other hand have to decide if they want to give up their job or if they want to stay home to raise their kids.” Its true. As soon as the man stays home with the child for a couple of days, they are off to work at don’t have to worry about making the decision. The women on the other hand has to think if they want to stay home and watch after their new born or if they want to go back to working the dream job they have been working towards their whole life. For some women it is a hard choice for them because they would love to be doing both, but for others like my mom she knew that she wanted to stay home and raise my brother and me. But why is it the mother who has to make this decision? Why is it that the man does not decide to give up their job to stay home? Is it because they have worked harder and have a better job or is it because they are being paid more money then the women. Or is it just because he is the man that they is what he is expected to do? Today in our society, men and women are still split in what they are expected to do and what they do in fact do. Women are often put into a hard position when they must choose if they want to stay home to raise a family or if they want to go back to their career they have been working for even since they started college. Men on the other hand have the baby, and then go back to work, but why is this and why is it not changed?

I like the story about the farm. The piece drags on a little bit, but makes the reader think- Jack