Psychology of Women

The course, Psychology of women has been a journey into the history, present and the future of the changing position of women from all around the world. History cannot be undone, future cannot be determined but the present psychology of women has taught me how women progressed to the varying positions today through a world controlled by men in power. There are still more to be learned about women in order to gain a profound understanding of their origin, development and the underlying principles of what characterizes a woman. Through psychology of women, I was able to learn new aspects about the ways of life that women lived in the past decades. What was more intriguing was that not only did I learn about women in other cultures, I was also able to apprehend more about women of my own culture mainly by doing the wise woman interview project. It gave me a chance to reflect upon how my mother carried herself through challenges in a male-dominated society, Sri Lanka. It was very common and well-known that women in the past lived under extreme control of men to varying degrees in different cultures. I was shocked when I learned about the degree of control that men exerted upon women surpassed the limit of verbal and physical abuse to keeping women emotionless, speechless, and powerless as if they were living properties. For instance, The New Psychology of Women by Lips provides an example where African women were forced into prostitution by their husbands for economic growth (Reference). Although if we were to ask a man today whether he will look for a wife who is a virgin or not, the most common and definite answer would be a virgin even though men are the ones robbing women’s virginity before marriage, in most cases using forceful measures—rape. By conducting the wise women interview I was also shocked to learn about the practice of “sati”—the practice of immolating one’s self after her husband dies which took place in India although this has not been reported of...