Gender Issues and Study Abroad

Questions for Reflection

 

1. Are there types of clothing that are considered inappropriate in your host country that would usually not be considered inappropriate at home?

• For women, shorts or skirts above knee-length are not acceptable; thighs can not be shown
• In traditional Senegalese society, a garment should cover most parts of the body. The garment should fit loosely so that the shape of the body is not revealed.
• Younger women will be seen wearing a distinctive close fitting tunic with a plunging neckline and matching wrapped skirt made from cotton prints.
• In the urban areas, European style clothing is also commonly worn
• women usually wear head-ties to match their dress
• for women, wearing pants, even long ones, is considered inappropriate by tradition, although in urban areas today younger women frequently wear long pants.
• While bare breasts are not considered immoral or provocative among Senegalese people in a rural context, women do not normally walk with bare breasts outside their compounds unless when they are working or breast feeding

 

2. What kinds of unwritten rules about gender roles exist in your host country? (e.g., How is direct eye contact or a smile from a woman usually taken by men?)

• Women are expected to be housewives/do domestic chores
• Direct eye contact doesn’t occur very often in Senegal, especially with older people (it’s a sign of disrespect)

 

3. What kinds of acts are considered flirtation in your host country that you would usually not be consider flirtation at home?

• When a man comes on to a woman, sometimes saying “no” is taken as “playing hard to get”; men will usually try at least two more times before taking a “no” as “no.”

 

4. What obvious differences exist between the way you typically act on a night out, riding public transportation, walking through the city, in encounters with local men, etc. and the way the native women act?

• Women do not typically drink alcohol in Senegal
• Clothing differences
• Not appropriate for a woman to walk alone at night
• Pick-pocketing and petty crime is common—would not wear jewelry