Women and Globalization

Objectives:
Students will:
1. Ponder careers or roles in which they would not typically expect to find women.
2. Examine the dying profession of female divers by reading and discussing the article "South Korea's 'Sea Women' Trap Prey and Turn Tables."
3. Research, in groups, the changing roles of women in a particular country for a documentary on this subject.
4. Individually, write proposals to potential financial backers explaining what they have learned and why this project is worthwhile.

Resources / Materials:
-copies of the article "South Korea's 'Sea Women' Trap Prey and Turn Tables," found online at http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20050216wednesday.html
-resources about the role of women in various societies and professions in countries around the world (we will use the internet)

Read the current article found at this link:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iran_stoning

1. WARM-UP/DO NOW: As a class, brainstorm a list of careers in which students might not expect a woman to be working, such as football coach or taxi driver.  Encourage students to consider gender differences in professions in various countries, such as Israel, where it is mandatory for both women and men to serve in the military. For each profession mentioned, tell me why you believe this position seems gender-specific. Does it have to be this way? Why or why not? What factors may influence the type of position a woman holds, either for money or in society? What might account for differences around the world?

2. In class, we will read and discuss the article "South Korea's 'Sea Women' Trap Prey and Turn Tables" (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20050216wednesday.html).  You need to answer the following questions:

a. What are the women of Udo doing, according to the article?

b. Why are they doing this activity?

c. How long do they spend underwater?

d. What motivates these women to dive?

e. According to Yang Jung Sun, age 75, what does it feel like to get out of breath under water? Why does she keep going back down?

f. How many dives do these women do each month?

g. What do they do for work the rest of the time?

h. How old is the history of Cheju's "sea women"?

i. What percentage of sea women registered in Cheju were over the age of 50?

j. Why aren't men sea divers?

k. How is the traditional Korean culture described?

l. How has sea diving changed the social roles of women?

m. What role have men played on Mara Island?

n. Why were girl babies celebrated in Cheju?

o. On Udo, what percentage of revenue comes from farming?

p. How might a man being near Yang Jung Sun have affected what she said to the reporter for this article?

q. How deep can the best divers dive?

r. What kind of gear or tools do these sea women use?

s. What industry is growing on Cheju?

3. You will be divided into groups of four. You will be researching and preparing for the creation of a documentary highlighting the traditional roles of women and how the younger generations are changing those roles. Assign each group a country, such as Korea, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, etc. For their assigned country, you will examine belief systems that helped shape the traditional roles of women, as well as the driving forces that have enabled younger generations to reshape these roles (if applicable). To guide your research, you should answer the following questions on paper.

-What percentage of your assigned country's population is female?

-What factors have influenced women's status in this country? Consider politics, religion, income, culture, etc.

-How does this culture value women as compared to men?

-In what professions are women traditionally found? What reasons can you think of that may explain this?

-What strides and achievements have women made in the workplace? Consider various industries and fields, including academia, politics, business, law, medicine, education, etc.

-If possible, find information on wage differences between the genders in various fields. Consider the idea of a "glass ceiling," tipping habits of customers, bonuses, etc.

-What steps have been taken to alter traditional roles of women in this country? Who has taken them? Why?

-How could your assigned country benefit from allowing traditional female roles to evolve with the times? Why?

Once research is completed, groups should analyze their notes to outline their segment of the documentary, selecting the most compelling information. They should also decide how to represent their material visually. Groups should share their information with the class.

4. WRAP-UP/HOMEWORK: Individually, students should write proposals promoting their class's plans for a documentary about the changing roles of women around the world to potential financial backers. What is the significance of this film? Who would benefit from seeing a documentary like this? Why and how? Additionally, students should include a brief explanation of what they learned in the process of preparing the research for this film.

*Idea  (If technology and time are available, we could film, edit and present their completed documentary in a future class.)

Evaluation / Assessment:
Students will be evaluated based on participation in class discussion, thorough completion of group research and presentation of segment outline to the class, and persuasive, thoughtfully written proposals to potential financial backers.

Vocabulary:
prey, islet, goggles, unison, jutting, synchronized, plumb, dexterity, throbbing, greed,, clashed, inferior, ostensibly, forbade, abalone, revenue, reversed, prevailed, status, fuel, plunge, dislodge, status, pervasive