Joshua Myers

Throughout history man has answered serious ethical dilemmas. Today, we have more difficult and more ethical problems everyday that need answers. It can be very hard to decide what is truly right and wrong. It can be hard to navigate these questions and requires time and effort. In this essay, I explain what I believe to be the best way to answering these questions. I review my previous essays and attempt to walk through the ethical problem of abortion.

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Continue reading Answering Ethical Problems

Plato is an ancient philosopher whose works are timeless. Plato, in The Republic, explains in great detail, his belief in politics and what makes a good ruler a successful and respected leader. In this essay, I talk about Plato’s belief in meritocracy and the four cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, self-control, and justice. We can learn from these ideas in today time as we vote for individuals, we should look at the virtues of the canidates and the skill and intelligence that the canidates hold. We can learn a lot from Plato’s politcs and can and should implement some of these into our assesment of canidates today.

__________________________________________________________________________________ Continue reading Plato’s Politics

Several topics were discussed in this class that explored different cultures and civilizations. All of them have broadened my education in some aspect or another. There were a few lessons that stood out to me as particularly interesting and very educational. The biggest were the study of gender and the vast difference in viewpoints in cultures around the world and the effects that certain social industries, such as porn, can affect pressures and self-belief. Moreover, the cultural study into the menstruation cycle and seeing how different cultures support or view menstruation may have been the most intriguing to me personally. Other assignments given in the class allowed me to research deeper or become more interested in certain view. All of these lessons offered deep insight and opened me to new thoughts and ideas about viewing certain cultural problems or stigmas.

Perhaps the most important lesson I have learned in this class is to keep an opened mind and not let personal thoughts block me from learning and understanding something new. This idea came up in the very first artifact we completed. My idea coming into this class was to try to keep an open mind and I am thankful I have. As I wrote about the burrneshas, or sworn virgins of the Balkans, I was immediately taken off-guard on why people would identify with the opposite gender. After reading the article and reflecting a little, it hit me. “When blood feuds decimated all the men in a family, the only way to salvage their honor was for a woman to become the patriarch of the clan and start acting like a man.” (Artifact 1*) This line from the article was exactly what I hadn’t thought of. The fact that many people would immediately become a man was understandable in patriarchal societies it was better to be a man than a woman and to salvage honor was understandable. Although this immediately made sense for a woman wanting to become a man it wasn’t an immediate understanding for any of the other third genders out there. That is when I understood that there may be all kind of reasons for anyone wishing to transition and I may not know. Furthermore, we learned about the Mosuo of China, the matrilineal culture. A very interesting and different view of gender roles compared to the normal patriarchal society that most of the world follows. Also understanding the past industrial economy of the mid-20^th century in the United States lead me to see how even the culture of the United States has changed since our birth and throughout some of our most significant points in history thus far. In my writing of artifact two, I found that one of the most interesting topic of looking at the industrial economy was the view of men who had their wives working in the capitalistic economy. The idea of the men being the bread winners for a family was so great that men that had working wives were seen as lesser of a man for not being able to produce enough for their family. This was interesting because it still happens in part of the world today and even though we have women working in most every field offered to men, there still seems to be somewhat of a stigma if the woman makes more than the man. An interest view in my opinion considering this was a hundred years ago and yet we still see some of the same stigmas.

Stigmas are something that have not changed but evolved. Today, the stigmas on the roles of men and women have been shaped drastically in a new way. I had never really thought of the way that porn has shaped people’s minds. Not only has it taken us from the original magazines published in Playboy, but into something much more drastic and dangerous. One of the most amazing things I learned when discussing this issue was the amount of women and young girls getting cosmetic surgeries like labiaplasties and other “enhancements” where astonishing to me. All of this for self-confidence was a direct result of the porn industry and what it has become. (Artifact 2) I agreed completely when the spokeswoman in the field posed the question about where will the porn industry take things next after refereeing to the fact that porn is violent and harsh. I could not imagine and still cannot imagine where the porn industry can go before even then it is too much. The question still remains for me where will society begin saying that it has gone too far and what could society do that would be legal? I am still amazed by how something like the porn industry has so much power over most of society and even some involved with politics.

The most curious of assignments and one I had fun researching was of the menstruation cycle and just how different parts of the world and cultures dealt with this natural process. I had written my artifact on Niddah and the Orthodox Jews viewpoints on the monthly process. It was by far the craziest, in an interesting way, topic I had reviewed. Understanding that different places like Nepal had huts that women were discarded to until the finishing of their menstruation was crazy but then to see a very established and early religion like the Jews had a very traditional process that viewed women the same way that other cultures did, unclean. Having the separation of beds and absolutely no touching so as to prevent the likelihood of intercourse was very interesting. In particular to hear the view of the woman saying that she liked it because it kept the little things meaningful and intimate was very unique. (Artifact 6) Finally, that the culmination of them menstruating had to be completed by a purifying bath that all the women had to go to. In a similar way there is a social outcast towards women in America to keep their menstruations to themselves and not to let anyone know. It is interesting that just about worldwide through different cultures and religions there is a similarity of it being considered uncleanly even though it is a completely common occurrence in the majority of all females.

By far the most thought provoking assignment for me was the film Southern Comfort. I confused early in the beginning of the film but when I understood that Robert Eads was a transgender I was very interested in why had society out casted him and in particular why had the multiple health care providers he had visited turned him down. What happened to the Hippocratic Oath that doctors take to care for all people? Regardless if they believe in the choices of a patient, they should still attempt to help. Obese people made the choice to become obese and health care would be offered to them if needed. It is sad to think that a profession as respectable as a doctor to be providing care for people would be seen more on a monetary value than a basis of care provided to someone who is dying. It also interested me in the significance of support needed when going through the hard times that gender confirming surgeries and just deciding to live that lifestyle. It is a great thing to have not only for a transgender but just in general for people going through huge surgeries or medical processes.

Overall the topics discussed, I learned a little if not a lot about them and myself. There were many times the reflections inspired and ignited new thoughts and arguments I haven’t heard or thought of before. It was a great experience to understand not only American cultures and societal viewpoints but also touch on other parts of the world and understand universal issues that all cultures experience. There was a great deal of knowledge learned on my part about all kinds of issues.

HR: artifacts from past reflections, *text cited within artifacts

Gender identity and the health of those individuals has become hot topics in the past and of recent history. The story of Robert Eads in Southern Comfort is of one of the biggest and still earliest accounts of the health and personal story of a transgender. His story refers mostly to the hardships he had about coming out, dealing with society, and dealing with the health system and medical community. In an article titled “The Story About Robert Eads” we are given an early account of Robert Eads’ life. He was born Barbara Eads in December 18, 1945 in Toccoa, Georgia. He was raised as a girl by his parents and was assigned female sex at birth. He grew up female and even mothered two children. Later in life he would identify not as a man but as a lesbian because of the easier social pressure. However, his decision to begin living as a heterosexual male was a little later in his life. At the time of his sex change, doctors had advised Eads not to have a hysterectomy and other common procedures done with sex changes because of his age. This was his curse as later in life the only thing that remained female would be his death.
One of the main points of Southern Comfort came with Eads’ medical issue. In 1996 Eads was taken to the emergency room with severe abdominal pain and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Eads had immediately attempted seeking medical advice and help but was turned away for fear of a ruined or tainted reputation on the doctor’s records. The issue of providing healthcare to transgenders has becoming significantly better over the years since Southern Comfort came out. It still represents significant issues that transgenders faced in personal health. Today’s medical community is much more accepting of transgender persons. In the Journal of Clinical endocrinology and Metabolism for example one article titled Endocrine Treatment of Gender-Dysphoric/Gender-Incongruent Persons: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline they have published a very in-depth summary of recommendations for health care providers to help advise gender-incongruent persons. I believe there is a lot of things that trans genders don’t understand about their bodies when they go through this sex change. In Southern Comfort there was a line that Maxwell Anderson claimed how he doesn’t know much of what is “down there” and that instead his wife, Cori, a transgender woman probably knew more than him. This is problematic for transgenders because regardless of how they identify, they have certain sex organs that they must take care of. This correlates to the article in class in The New England Journal of Medicine titled The Power and Limits of Classification — A 32-Year-Old Man with Abdominal Pain Sam, the transgender man should have understood his body and the fact that he had not received a menstrual period in a while or that he had become “obese.” There was probably a lot that could have been done to save him the trouble and if so desired keep the baby that was instead delivered stillborn.
One of the other main points of Southern Comfort was support. There was a significance about family support and friends. Many problems can occur when a transgender lacks a proper support system and a strong support system can make all the difference. In the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing a study conducted was posted titled Family Acceptance in Adolescence and the Health of LGBT Young Adults found that “Family acceptance predicts greater self-esteem, social support, and general health status; it also protects against depression, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation and behaviors.” This is more than likely true for older persons as well as adolescents. Robert Eads struggled with his families support but found support in SoCo and his friends he met there. To all of them SoCo was the chance to talk with like-minded individuals and gain support for one another and talk about issues they face throughout the year. To all of them it was a chance to make lifetime friends. One of the biggest reasons for these support systems and why it is rudimentary to proper health is facing the prejudice and overall stereotypes that many in society have about transgenders and possible even those times that you may second guess your decision. There are many stereotypes associated with transgenderism such as mental illness, being outcast by society and being homosexual. As in the event of Robert Eads we saw how transgenders can be heterosexual. Suicide and general depression can be very high in transgenders that don’t have a support group and we can see why people who are transgenders may have some mental health problems because of those who stereotype against them.
While it seems hard for the general public to accept and understand a lot of what transgenders go through to fully identify with their gender, it really isn’t hard for people to just respect others. Robert Eads could have lived longer and enjoyed life more had doctors respected the fact that a person was sick and needed care regardless of how their reputation would have changed. It is thankful that the medical community puts guidelines for how health care providers should go about caring for patients who have gender-incongruence or wish to be taken care of. There are a ton of support groups that people can become a part of and share their story and know that they aren’t alone. Great strides have been made since the release of Southern Comfort and I can imagine in several more years that even greater strides will be made in terms of societal acceptance, medical applications, and even a more empowering belief in the LGBTQ community.

Help Received: joshjRavishankar, Mathura (January 18, 2013). “The Story About Robert Eads”. The Journal of Global Health. Archived from the original on September 14, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2013.

, Articles and journals found in Canvas and titles cited in text (multiple authors), Southern Comfort Film

Menstruation is the normal process that all biological women go through. It is an interesting topic to learn about in general and very intriguing.  This process for many women could either painful, embarrassing, annoying or all for most, all of the above. The menstrual cycle becomes more of a hassle for women most of the time when you add cultural or religious views and traditions. The Orthodox Jews for instance, are particularly interesting. The community of Orthodox Jews call this time Niddah and with this time many rituals and traditions are associated with this practice within their religion.

Littered throughout the Hebrew Bible is the word Niddah. This simply refers to times or objects of uncleanliness. It has been viewed in even the Book of Zechariah as a reference to the washing of Jerusalem. However in today’s tradition, Niddah refers to the time that a woman is considered unclean. Most of the rules set aside for women during these days are discussed in the Book of Leviticus. One of the biggest rules is no physical contact of affection or lust in any such way during the time a woman is in Niddah. This is regardless of husband and wife affiliation and it is actually stricter for married Jews. Married couples must separate their beds and are not permitted any physical contact whatsoever regardless of whether it is lustful or of affection. One example of this is in the video we watched during class with the passing of cups by having one set the cup down and then the other partner picking it up.

The final events of Niddah include the purification process. Women check to see if the end of menstruation has come by using a “checking cloth” called a bedikah. This is a piece of white cloth that is used to check the end menstrual flow. The woman will then begin counting the seven days after, checking each day in the morning and before sunset for blood. After nightfall on the eighth evening, the woman may go to the mikveh, or pool for spiritual purification (see picture.) The woman will go to the mikveh already showered and properly groomed. While at the mikveh an attendant will help check that the woman has been properly immersed and has followed proper protocol. As observed in the video, men usually take over household duties and children duties in order to help the woman as she is at the mikveh. When the woman has returned she is considered pure and may touch and engage in intercourse with her husband.

This process seems lengthy and a whole time of around 14 days is required for the separation process. This seems not only a hassle for the woman but even the man. However, like the video stated, it helps keep things special and cherish those small touches as very intimate. I would agree with this statement and believe that it also helps keep the wedded in line with the religious laws of no sex during a woman’s “uncleanliness.” It is because of their religious beliefs that they practice this way. It has been stated that there are more lenient rules regarding Niddah however the standard practice has become a little stricter, in particular the time required for women to use the bedikah has increased over time. This has had a negative impact on fertility given the time for ovulation and many sages will grant exceptions to this seven day period in order to help with conception. Although this practice seems very repressive I think many woman see it as part of the religious duty as a woman and don’t see it as being repressive but more empowering and helping keep a strong relationship with their husbands.

 

Help Received: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niddah (Main source of Resources), Video shown in class, Image pulled from Google images,

One of the first decisions many parents make with the arrival of a baby boy is whether or not to circumcise their new addition. What exactly goes on during a circumcision, why do parents do it and what good can come out of it? The history of circumcisions is long and may date back to before recorded history. Most historians believe that it began around in the Middle East and particularly Egypt has one of the earliest depictions of circumcision. One of the most famous accounts would be from the Hebrew bible explaining the circumcision of Abraham and all his decedents as a covenant with God. Obviously in the first accounts of performing circumcisions were probably less than safe and no doubt painful. How exactly has circumcisions changed?

With advancements in medicine they have three main procedures that can be performed by physicians. These are the Gomco Clamp, Mogen Clamp, and Plastibell. While they are mostly different the procedures are similar. For the most part the doctor uses the certain devices to gather the foreskin and then continue to cut the foreskin off. The Plastibell is possibly the most common as it involves a ring that falls off 5 to 8 days after the procedure has been conducted. Most people will have this done in a sterile hospital, countries who have deep cultural or religious beliefs may have it done in the woods, houses, or other very risky places. Usually there will be one person that the community will have do these as the time comes.

It is believed that most circumcisions originated from religious beliefs and cultural “manhood” traditions. Today these hold true and with new research and studies another reason men will get circumcised will be because of the health benefits. The American Academy of Pediatrics have listed several benefits listed in the insert provided. They also listed a few harms that could come with complications resulting from the procedure. These include yellow discharge, improper urination, continuous bleeding, and worsening redness around the penis tip. The personal stance of the AAP is that the benefits outweigh the risks and males should be circumcised.

The benefits are actually used to encourage African adult males to get circumcised. The biggest reason is to lower the STI cases that are so numerous in Africa. A lot of public campaigning is going on like songs, billboards and other commercial advertisement. In several African cultures circumcision is a rite of passage to manhood. Some boys are thrown into the wilderness for their circumcision and the recovery period. There are many risks to this including horrible infection caused by improper hygiene. Other harms include death or rejection from their community if they choose to receive help from the outside.

Overall the benefits outweigh the risks of infection and very rarely could that be something more serious given our access to medical care. As the history begin as a cultural and religious practice the medical science would agree with this procedure as something most everyone should do. While there are a few benefits to being uncircumcised, it is ultimately up to the parents to weigh the sides and if it comes down to religious reasoning then at least is a medically beneficial procedure.

Porn, being one of the most searched subjects in google and other search engines, is sure to have some effect on our culture, right? Of course it has and probably more than most people realize. Some of the effects of porn are how men and women in society see themselves and each other. The porn industry affects the roles of both the male and female in intercourse, how self-conscious people are about their bodies and how they perform in sex, and finally how the intimacy of intercourse is deteriorating.

One of the easiest things to search online is porn. Even with parental watch or overprotective parents, children will find a way because they are curious. With all their friends talking about porn, sex, or just relationships a child’s mind can run wild. The problem with this is for many they are young and ignorant and have only just had the “talk” from their parents and are ready to experiment. In a New York Times article titled, “What Teenagers Are Learning From Online Porn” written by Maggie Jones in 2018, the opening paragraphs discuss the personal stories of a few male high school students. Their personal stories are the basic outline that almost all adolescent males have had at some point in their youth. The basic outline begins with the curiosity of what sex is like. This is a key problem when looking at how the porn industry is affecting what roles should the male and female take in intercourse. Most pornography videos include what many could consider very aggressive male dominance of the woman. Looking at this type of porn immediately presents the problem that these males see their role as being violent and dominant because that is what the girl appears to like in the videos. For females they see their role as being accepting of the rough behavior in order to pleasure their male partner.

Part of this role women are expected to perform in sex extends to their relationships in general. Outward appearance of female porn stars drive society’s views of female perfection. Models that show more skin than clothing on magazines like Sports Illustrated are more photo-shopped than real. However, everything in porn is real, right? Well more than likely there has been thousands of dollars spent on cosmetic surgeries to achieve that perfect appearance. What does this mean for the majority of females, in particular the younger generations? One cosmetic surgery that wouldn’t surprise most to hear about is female breast enlargements or reductions or even nose reconstruction. However, on the rise in cosmetic surgery, especially in younger females, is labiaplasty. In another article published in The New York Times written by Roni Caryn Rabin titled, “More Teenage Girls Seeking Genital Cosmetic Surgery” in 2016 “Girls 18 and younger account for less than 2 percent of all cosmetic operations, but almost 5 percent of all labiaplasties.” While this article was written in 2016 it is probably safe to say that this is true or even maybe slightly increased in statistics. The article does talk about how there was push back on having still developing females have this surgery by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The author answers what she says is what is driving the trend by explaining that the easy access to the internet has heightened searches of images of vulva but experts say they “are often air-brushed and do not portray the range of normal variation.” This belief of what the vulva is supposed to look like in order to raise self-consciousness no doubt stems from the porn industry.

The porn industry’s effect of what roles the male and female should take in intercourse has affected one big aspect of what sex is supposed to be. Intimacy, as defined by dicitionary.com, is the close familiarity or friendship; closeness. How are a couple supposed to remain intimate if the porn industry is telling them exactly what the women wants and the man should do or even how the woman should look. In the past, the practice of sex before marriages was considered almost shameful by society. In today’s time, driven by curiosity and the porn industry, there is social pressure for men to lose their virginity at least during college if not before, regardless of who the woman is. What does that mean for intimacy, its non-existent? “Hookups” are not about closeness or familiarity but purely about pleasure. The divorce rate continues to climb and it is becoming a rarity for young couples to make it to their 25^th wedding anniversary. One problem I would say is communication and this directly correlates to the bedroom where there isn’t much communication about what works but what the porn video the guy watched the day before dictates what she would like. This is horrible for a relationship because in general she probably doesn’t like it but believes the male does like it. While other definitions of intimacy deal directly with sexual intercourse it would be safe to say the more intimate two are before, the better the sex for both partners.

It has become a shame to a part of a society that believes that porn is driving factor behind one of the best things about nature. Being self-conscious about body image for both the male and female, stereotyping roles in intercourse and completely deteriorating bedroom and relationship intimacy are only a few things that porn has affected. In “Pornland: How the Porn Industry has Hijacked Our Sexuality” there was a moment when the speaker asked the question “Where will porn go next?” Indicating that the violence already seen in porn is already too high and there isn’t much more that can happen. The question could further ask what else could porn affect in our relationships. There are a lot of questions that porn can pose when someone looks at it as more than just a pleasure industry. How will the porn industry start affecting more than just our personal relationships in the future and when, if ever, will society start recognizing the problem and begin attempting to fix the problem?

 

Help Received: Resources found on Canvas Page indicated in text, Dictionary.com, Pornland/Guyland films

There is something that many doctors and professionals ignored for a long time that can not be ignored any longer. Different genders experience different health factors and risks associated with their bodies. The biggest thing about the male and female health differences is understanding that sex is based off several biological factors such as reproductive organs, sex hormones and chromosomes. While at the same time gender differences include behavior lifestyle, and life experiences. Throughout medicine, for example cardiovascular diseases, men and women will face different risks and outcomes. Women will have more consequences related to a-fib and have more strokes than men. Other examples include iron deficiencies affecting women more than men, women with chronic kidney disease, autoimmune disease, fibromyalgia, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer’s all occur or are reported more in women than men. On the other hand, men are more diagnosed with Parkinson’s, skin cancer, ALS, HIV, Autism, and men have an extraordinary higher rate of suicide.
Many factors can affect the differences we see in women and men health. Take how society views gender roles. Men should mow the lawn, right? What about work in the fields under the sun? There may be a reason to why men have higher cases of skin cancer. Men also do dumb acts to prove their masculinity and will purposefully do high risk activities in hopes of achieving the adrenaline rush or approval from somebody. Meanwhile how society views women, how women should achieve the perfect model body, is probably one the highest reason for women having a greater depression rate than men. On the research end of studies, it is probably understood that women are probably more diagnosed since women will book more regular checkups for themselves and children while men are either “too tough” for the doctors or more likely too afraid of hurting their ego or self-esteem.
One of the final things to look at is the life expectancy of men and women. Women will on average outlive men by five years. Reasons to the life expectancy gap is because of men have a higher death rate for the leading causes of death like cardiovascular disease and cancer. This could be due to the more toxic occupations that men tend to be found in. Jobs that are more dangerous are understood by society as more masculine jobs in society which would attribute to the higher injury/death rates associated. However, in honesty it could be a male taking an unnecessary risk which, as mentioned before, is a huge factor into the injury/death rate of men. Other leading factors of health risk are those outside factors that we as humans could control. Alcohol, tobacco, and unhealthy weight are all higher in men than women and all of these can be controlled and depends on the person. Men using common sense, self-discipline, and seeing a doctor more often would probably close the health gap even more than the five years its at.

 

Help Received: Notes from class, in class PowerPoint

How is it that we can live in a century with most advanced technology ever but can’t get something like equal opportunities for women? Regardless of what your political belief is the statistics show that there is a global gender gap, yes even in the 21st century. The issue lies not only in America but in countries all over the globe and the gender gap doesn’t include just health and pay. Each year the World Economic Forum posts the data it collects on the global gender gap. According to their website, the sub-indexes that are used for the data are: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. Economic Participation and Opportunity look at the “participation gap, remuneration gap and the advancement gap.” The big components of this are the income gap, participation in the work force and wage equality. Educational Attainment measures male and female access to education in a country. Health and Survival aims to look at the life expectancy of both males and females and compare the ratio. The final, Political Empowerment, aims to analyze the ratio of men to women in political positions such as parliament. It does not however contribute local government to its statistics.
In the study conducted by the World Economic Forum, the results gave a ranking of countries. In the top five were Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Nicaragua. Interestingly four of the five were in Western Europe. The bottom five were Chad, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, and Yemen. Mostly Middle Eastern Countries. For Ice land their scores for health and survival were ranked 121 but were number one in Political empowerment. In fact, the top ten were all ranked under 20 for political empowerment. While some scores in the other sub-indexes were above 100. It sees that political empowerment became a big part of ranking or at least a trend in comparison to the bottom five where only two countries ranked below 100 (90 and 97.) Chad did tie with many other countries to rank 1 for Health and survival. Like Political Empowerment, there was a similar trend between the top and bottom five for Economic Participation and Opportunity. Where the top five held higher ranking in the Economic Participation and Opportunity compared to the bottom five.
The United States ranked 51 in the results for 2018. This moved us down from our rank of 49 in the 2017 report. Our Highest two categories were Political Empowerment, ranked 98, and Health and Survival, ranked 71. We had little change from last year’s report in Political Empowerment, as we improved slightly in Economic Opportunity and Participation. While we continue to hold top 20 in Economic Opportunity and Participation we slipped in education. This tells us that we are failing in providing equal education and need to improve this and the Health and Survival, which could be contributed to a lack in health care. However, it is interesting that men have a lower life expectancy than women. On the political side we are probably restricted in the fact we haven’t had a female head of state and the study looks back 50 years for this statistic. While now we have the highest percent of females in congress I suspect this report next year will have the lowest ranking for Political Empowerment that the United States has had and will probably bring us back in the top 50.
I found Israel’s ranking very interesting considering its geographical neighbors seemed to be much lower on the list. Israel was ranked 46 overall. The country tied for first in educational attainment with the highest score of 1.000. Additionally, their Political Empowerment ranked 48 which is significantly higher than the United States. Health and Survival for Israel was its biggest defeat at 97. I think the biggest observation I could make between Israel and its neighbors had to do with the religion. It is not surprising that the Muslim culture views women lesser and thus that their scores are significantly lower. It is interesting to see how the small country surrounded by this Muslim Culture has fought many wars and years and now ranked even higher than the U.S., a significantly developed country where many religions are accepted. Therefore, I wonder how much America’s acceptance of different religions play important factors into our statistics.
One fact to understand is how domestic roles may affect these statistics. Women’s work may be affected by their pregnancy and therefore may restrict their ability to perform the jobs they need to. Women usually take weeks off after the birth of their child and this time off can significantly harm their careers and ability to be promoted or perform their current job. Then there is the male in the relationship that may take a couple of days off to care for his wife and newborn, but a couple of days is nothing to several weeks or months. Should men be more involved with the domestic responsibilities of caring for a newborn or children or focus more on providing? I think it depends on the two in the relationship. I don’t believe anyone can speak for someone else and say it should be shared work or separated into specific gender roles. It should most definitely be left up for the couple to communicate and establish what each partner should do in the relationship and wants to do in the relationship.

 

Help Received: Class notes, World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap 2018 results and explanations, America’s Health Rankings on Maternal Death rates.