Shahrokni, Nazanin 
ORCID: 0000-0002-3501-0677 and Andrews, Abigail
(2014)
Patriarchal accommodations: women's mobility and policies of gender difference from urban Iran to migrant Mexico.
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 43 (2).
148 - 175.
ISSN 0891-2416
Abstract
This paper begins from a paradox. In the 1980s and 1990s, women became increasingly mobile, especially in the developing world. Scholars generally attribute this shift to global economic pressure or to the spread of (Western) gender egalitarianism. Yet, in some places, women gained mobility just as local institutions extended policies excluding them or segregating them from men. Here, we look at two such cases: first, how women of Tehran, Iran, became the majority of bus riders just as the city segregated public transportation, and second, how women in the rural, Mexican village of San Pedro came to predominate among emigrants to the United States, even as they were excluded from participating in village politics. We use what we call “linked ethnographies” to put these two cases into dialogue. While attending to the particularities of each site, we find that in both, women gained mobility through the very policies that appeared to confine or exclude them. We call these policies “patriarchal accommodations.” They were patriarchal, because they enshrined formal gender difference associated with male dominance. They were accommodations, because they adapted existing standards of “appropriate” masculinity and femininity to global economic pressure, enabling women to work, study, and consume. We argue that patriarchal accommodations may facilitate women’s entry into the public sphere, particularly in non-Western regimes.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | https://journals.sagepub.com/home/jce |
| Additional Information: | © 2014 The Authors |
| Divisions: | Gender Studies |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Nov 2019 15:48 |
| Last Modified: | 26 Apr 2024 20:48 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/102478 |
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