Caroline Victoria Raynor and Dr. Doug Weatherford, Spanish and Portuguese
The gender roles of Mexican women seem rather obvious to most people. You envision submissive women, cooking, cleaning and raising children. While this is in most part true, life is changing in the rural villages near Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico. As I began this research, I intended to define what the roles of these women consisted of. I found that the roles are not as rigid as one would imagine, and the women are not as docile as I had thought.
Every year, the Mexico Literacy program sends students down to rural villages in Guanajuato, Mexico. They work with a government agency called INEA (National Instituted of Adult Education). In concert with this organization, they assist the people in learning to read and write, as well as complete their primary and secondary education certificates. The students live with families in the village; they take classes studying their culture and research their way of life.
Truly, in this situation the students enjoy day-to-day interaction with the people and become part of their daily lives. But, this is not where I began my research. I started here in the Harold B. Lee library. I read articles and books that discussed typical, traditional, roles of rural Mexican Women. Through this research I gained a good understanding of their lives. This preliminary research led me to the hypothesis that rural women did indeed adhere to the strictly defined gender roles that are so often associated with underdeveloped communities. Furthermore, I came to believe that these roles were propagated by the men of the community, instilling in their sons a strong desire to assert their dominance in the bread-winning activities of the home. It seemed as though I would prove the articles and books to be correct. But I still believed that there was a change to be observed.
The close interaction I enjoyed with the people as I participated in the Mexico Literacy program during the winter of 2002, assisted me in building a large repertoire of reliable informants, and facilitated in close participant observation. That is to say, I developed strong relationships through which I was able to observe daily activities with the knowledge that the people were not acting differently as a result of my presence. In this situation, not only did I observe, but I had enlightening conversations with the people concerning the women’s roles in the village. Ironically the one method that I found to be ineffective was the use of formal interviews and surveys. It seemed that the people tried to paint an ideal picture rather than reality.
The women of these villages do much more than housework, during the planting and harvesting seasons, they work right alongside their husbands, sons and fathers. These women take care of animals, some owning herds of goats that they use to make cheese. In the village in which I lived, there were three tiendas or stores, all of which were owned by women. The women are also involved with a government organization called Progressa, which promotes health education. During these meetings, the women organize themselves to accomplish tasks, such as measuring and weighing the children to see if they are undernourished. The women also get together to sweep the streets, the Church yard, and clean the school.
Interestingly enough, the women are not the only ones who are beginning to involve themselves in tasks that were formerly ascribed to the opposite gender. The men are crossing boundaries as well. They do primarily work in the field and with animal maintenance, but they have been known to help out with household chores now and then. The men will help bring water to the home. They will take the corn to the mill to be ground for tortillas. One woman emphatically declared that her husband knew how to wash, sweep and even make tortillas. I never once saw a man serve his own food, so I am a little skeptical of the idea of a man making tortillas. Nonetheless, the times are changing.
The town meetings seem to be one domain that is still exclusively male, or so it appears. These meetings take place about once a week. It is a strictly male affair. Up until the last two weeks before I left, I tried to find out why only the men made the decisions for the town. Then, I learned a key piece of information; there is one woman who goes to the meetings. This woman is one of the oldest women in the village. She is related to over three-fourths of the people in the closest three villages. She has been known to frequent the meetings. Her opinion and input is held in high esteem. Perhaps in time all the women will be included in this meeting.
The thing that I found most interesting in this research is the way in which these gender roles are propagated. It is not the men telling their boys to be tough and leave the housework to the women; it is the women telling their sons that they are incapable of doing the housework. I vividly remember one day talking to one of my students. She was washing clothes in the river. Ironically we were talking about men and women and their respective roles in society. Her ten year old son came over and picked up the soap. She quickly snatched it out of his hands and said, “You don’t know how!” She turned to me and said, “Men are huevon (lazy)!” Memories came flooding back of the many times I had seen similar occurrences; a boy trying to turn a tortilla or serve some beans and being smacked or yelled at. Through further investigation I discovered the women’s attitude toward men; they are lazy and can’t take care of themselves. The clincher is they don’t know how to take care of themselves because their mothers refuse to teach them.
In conclusion, the gender roles are changing and soon enough so will the articles and books about them. As society progresses so will the people. Interestingly enough, it is the women that seem to be opposed to change. Why? I believe that by knowing that the men literally can not live with out women gives them a sense of value and pride. But, this too is changing as they begin to discover that they are capable of many valuable activities.
I believe that through studying others we come to know ourselves better. This experience taught me a lot about women and about a culture and a society. More than anything, it taught me more about who I am. The knowledge I have gained will be made available to future participants in the Mexico Literacy program, as well as to my future students.