The Battle over Female (In)Dependence : Women in New England Québécois Migrant Communities, 1870-1930

Waldron, FlorenceMae

Waldron explores the impacts of immigration on French Canadian norms of gender, labor, and social practice. She uses the examples of Lewiston, Maine, and Worcester, Massachusetts, and the different economies therein to ultimately observe the impact of a certain migration on the traditions (oppressive or otherwise) of a people. From the text: "My argument is twofold: on one hand, for male leaders in these migrant communities, perpetuating traditional ideas about men's and women's contributions to family and society was part of an effort to retain, on a communal level, their distinct identity as a Catholic people of French Canadian ancestry. In contrast, for female migrants, the decision to support traditional gender norms was a more complicated one; many migrant women and their American-born daughters advocated perpetuation of traditional Quebecois understandings of gender not only as a means of defining their place in American society, as Catholic women of French Canadian ancestry, but also to obtain and maintain the benefits and status within the home that these ideals afforded them in the United States."

2005

en

Journal Article

1870-1930; New England

#2

Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies

1536-0334

26