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Men and Women in Southern Spain: “Domestic Power” Revisited
Author(s) -
Gilmore David D.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1990.92.4.02a00060
Subject(s) - opposition (politics) , operationalization , gender studies , gender relations , sociology , power (physics) , inversion (geology) , demography , geography , political science , law , epistemology , philosophy , paleontology , physics , quantum mechanics , structural basin , politics , biology
This article offers a definition of “domestic power” and attempts to operationalize this for comparative study of gender relations in southern Europe. It describes male‐female relations in two stratified rural towns in Andalusia (southern Spain). The data show that working‐class women in these towns, often united with their mothers, are able in many cases to prevail in domestic decision making despite opposition from their husbands. The article explores the cultural and psychological reasons for this apparent inversion of a constituted patriarchal ideal and the relative effect of social class upon male and female power asymmetries. The implications of limited access of male fieldworkers to Andalusian women are briefly addressed. Finally, these findings are discussed in the light of broader epistemological issues in gender study.