Dissertation
Doing gender when home and work are blurred: women and sex-atypical tasks in family farming
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
08/2007
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000005754
Abstract
This dissertation is concerned with the production of gender and gender identities among women in a setting, the family farm, where traditional strategies of gender production such as bodily displays and the division of labor are significantly challenged. The first chapter uses both survey data and qualitative interview data to examine how involvement in farming and ranching affects how feminine or masculine women feel they are and how they feel they compare to their perception of society’s ideal woman. The results indicate that increased involvement is associated with feeling more masculine and feeling larger discrepancies between self and society’s ideal woman. They also reveal that many of the women try to formulate an alternative version of femininity (“capable femininity”) that incorporates their farm and ranch work, but are ultimately held accountable for the more traditional version of femininity that has previously
been termed “emphasized femininity.” The second chapter examines how the farm/ranch women “do gender” in the farm/ranch setting. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses show that they rely heavily on “gender products” to symbolize their femininity even when the “doing” of the tasks that produce them are long past. These findings suggest that the intensive focus by gender scholars on the “doing” has obscured elements that are equally important, and perhaps growing in importance, in the production of gender. The third chapter tests whether gender mediates previously reported negative relationships between farm/ranch stressors and well-being and positive relationships between social and personal resources and well-being. This chapter also examines how gender is related to farm women’s depression and self-esteem. The results indicate that gender has effects on well-being independent of either stressors or resources, and, with a few small exceptions, does not mediate the relationships between these variables and well-being.
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Details
- Title
- Doing gender when home and work are blurred
- Creators
- Jolene D. Smyth
- Contributors
- Monica Johnson (Chair) - Washington State University, Department of Sociology
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of Sociology
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 198
- Identifiers
- 99901054758001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation