Six different women from different countries came together to share and discuss what it was like growing up as a girl in each of their cultures.

The YWCA-ISU held their second panel discussion in a series on women’s issues around the world Wednesday in the Memorial Union.

Joyce Hwang, YWCA campus program coordinator, began the panel discussion, “When I was a Girl: Gender Roles,” by asking each member of the panel a series of questions dealing with gender roles and how they relate to young girls, the expectations automatically assumed in their culture and sex education.

The panel members included Ki-young Kang from Korea; Miranda Mhango from Malawi; Emilia Morosan from Romania; Joyce Mbugua from Kenya; Ingrid Adam from Trinidad and Claudia Giesel from Brazil.

Although all six women were from different countries and varying cultures, their experiences of growing up as young girls ran along parallel lines.

All of the women on the panel shared similar stories pertaining to traditional female and male roles within their families. The young women were expected to take care of the home, which mainly included cooking, cleaning and child-rearing. The young men were expected to do all of the outside work, which usually began at 4:30 a.m., and then attend to school. The young girls also attended school, but were not often encouraged to get a higher education.

For Giesel, being raised in Brazil left her with a lot of questions about why boys and girls were stuck in these traditional roles.

“In my country, I washed the dishes and my brother was playing soccer,” Giesel said.

Morosan said Romania also had rigid gender roles under communist rule.

“Women were thought of as the dishwashers, the kid raisers and the food preparers,” Morosan said.

Morosan said things are definitely better now for girls growing up in Romania, but women are still expected to go to work and then come home and do all the household duties.

These traditional roles also tied into sex education. For most of these women, sex was seen as a taboo topic and no formal sex education was offered. The panelists said they all received information about sex through friends, media and family members, such as older cousins.

Mhango, who grew up in Africa, explained in her culture, sex education was introduced as soon as the young girl reached menstruation, but not before then.

“As soon as the family finds out that the girl has reached womanhood, all the females in the family take the girl to the aunts home to explain in detail about sex and having children,” Mhango said.

The third panel discussion on women’s issues around the world will cover women and careers. It will be held from noon to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8, in Room 236 of the Memorial Union.