Lakota Woman: Gender

It was really interesting to see how differently men and woman look at gender roles in this culture. Much like the vast majority of the modern culture we live in today, men and woman often have conflicting ideas about what roles each gender plays. This is also true towards the end of the autobiography as well when it is disclosed how Crow Dog feels about the women’s role in their culture. In the United States, traditionally, and especially in the 1950’s, women were thought to have a housewife role. Their main responsibilities were to marry, raise children, cook, clean, and care for the nuclear family. It wasn’t until much later, and even very recently, that the way men and woman view the importance and roles of woman in the family and culture have started to shift. More women work than those that don’t, and it is very common for children to be put in daycare rather than having a stay at home mom that plays the 1950’s housewife role. Men also are experiencing changes as well. More men are sharing the responsibilities that formally were only “women’s roles” such as cooking, cleaning, and raising children.

Despite their being progressive shifts in attitude towards gender roles in most societies, it seemed as though some older more “traditional” gender roles were still held in place in this Native American culture. Although it seems at the end women are gaining more power, and are looked at with great importance, women still seemed to carry a large burden. Especially when the fights are going on among the authorities and the Native Americans, and the women were often left without men to help them. During this time the women had to take on all the responsibilities of two people. Crow Dog tries explaining to Mary how important the woman figure is in their culture and the symbolism behind the woman but there are still some issues that are yet to change. For example, while Crow Dog is in jail women are taking a more active role in a lot of the important ceremonies that take place on the reservation. There was even talk about an all lesbian group holding a ceremony which greatly upset Crow Dog. This helped to show that even though there have been a lot of improvements towards the equality of women and their roles in that culture, there is still more progress to be made before the two genders are truly equal. This not only shows how this culture is uniquely different from ours, but also how similar it is as well. Even in America women often are paid less for having the same profession as a man. While reading this autobiography some of the content may seem rather harsh and raw but it is interesting to think that Americans for a long time have also dealt with similar struggles in terms of equality and fair treatment.