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Gender on a New Frontier: Mexican Migration in the Rural Mountain West
Leah Schmalzbauer, PhD*
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: schmalzb{at}montana.edu.
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Abstract |
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In this article, the author draws from ethnographic field work with Mexican migrants in southwestern Montana, an emerging rural settlement of the Mountain West, to analyze the ways in which context of reception affects gender relations. The author constructs the analysis by looking at gender in terms of three primary elements of migrant incorporation: (1) employment, (2) geography, and (3) culture. The author finds that in Montana traditional gender relations are typically fortified or reintroduced through the migration process, often to the detriment of women. Yet women remain optimistic about their lives because they believe that in Montana they can be better mothers, providing safety and opportunities for their children that they could not provide elsewhere. The data challenge theorizing from urban settlements and highlight the significance of context of reception for constructions of gender and women’s experiences of power.
First published on September 30, 2009, doi:10.1177/0891243209346563
Gender & Society 2009;23:747.
A more recent version of this article appeared on December 1, 2009
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