Women's Work and Chicano Families by Patricia Zavella

Author:Patricia Zavella [Zavella, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural & Social, History, United States, State & Local, West (AK; CA; CO; HI; ID; MT; NV; UT; WY), Ethnic Studies, American, Hispanic American Studies, Americas (North; Central; South; West Indies), General, Women's Studies
ISBN: 9781501720062
Google: rZM7DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2018-03-15T03:30:12+00:00

Conclusion

Despite their beliefs that men’should bear the major responsibility for supporting families, most women found themselves in economic situations in which their wage contributions were necessary for family maintenance. Despite the need for an added income, however, husbands often protested their wives’ decision to seek a job. Women made the decision on their own or got husbands to accept by asserting the maternal right to provide for their children’s welfare. Women’s beliefs that their jobs would be temporary and would not interfere with family obligations added weight in favor of entering the labor force.

Yet these women faced many constraints in finding jobs. They had high school educations or less, few marketable skills, and, for some, limited English. Cannery jobs were considered relatively good, primarily because they were seasonal.

The evidence suggests that the decision for a woman to seek work was critical and subject to negotiation between husband and wife. Rather than being an example of the couple’s usual mode of making decisions, the decision for women to work in the canneries resolved a structural conflict. Given their husbands unstable jobs, women could not afford to maintain their positions as full-time homemakers. As mothers, the primary nurturers of children, neither could they accept full-time jobs. Their home responsibilities gave them leverage with which to assert their will, even if it also prevented them from becoming full-time workers. Uncovering this context of decision making enables us to understand how women can be both powerful and acquiescent. With two sets of constraints—the family and the local labor market—cannery work was considered the best solution to married women’s problems. Yet by seeking work that complemented their family obligations, these women ultimately may have contributed to their own segregation at work.

The next chapter follows women to work and examines their experiences within the canneries. In addition to the need for women’s wages in families, women’s participation in work culture provides another reason to return each season to the canneries.

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