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Mar 2, 2015 · How do roles and expectations of women differ in Amish and non-Amish society? Serving the Amish author Jim Cates explores the question of gender roles in this first of a three-part look at the Amish and women's issues.
Although a woman’s place in Amish society may be submissive, she is appreciated and revered by her family (Hostetler 1980). Amish women are rewarded for their adherence to culturally imposed limitations. Gender Gender consciousness can be defined as the ways and extent to which women
May 11, 2021 · To understand gender and family in the Amish world, the term “patriarchal “is important. In its anthropological and sociological sense, patriarchal is an honest reflection of gender relationships in Amish society.
- Smaller Families
- Electric Sewing Machines
- Less Clothes-Making
- Less Butchering
- Smaller Gardens
- More Free Time to Fill
- Different Daily “Rhythm” of Family Life
- More English Friends
- More Travel
Within those topics some mentioned that families are getting smaller (they are still larger than the average non-Amish family) and a consequence of that is that the women have less work to do at home. Mention of smaller families greatly impacts the work of an Amish wife. Bearing in mind that historically, the woman will make all the clothes for her...
Where previously women would have a treadle sewing machine that did not require electricity, depending on the local Ordnung, (the rules that govern life in the church district) some women were now able to avail themselves of the latest electronic sewing machines which has greatly speeded up the process. One woman talked to me about how these electr...
In some communities in both Pennsylvania and Ohio, some women have set up as dressmakers, so that, for women who do not enjoy sewing, they can purchase clothing for the family without having to make all of it. In some places, the dressmakers sell from their homes, as if it were a shop. This is a big change for women that they can now purchase men’s...
I wanted to add that none of “my” women did their own butchering at home, even if they were still farming. One woman told me that her neighbours who are Swartzentruber do their own butchering, but she doesn’t buy meat from them as “she doesn’t trust their hygiene”, instead she prefers to get a driver to take her eight miles away to an Amish family ...
Most of the women I interviewed in Pennsylvania told me that their gardens were smaller now than they used to be, and in Ohio, women told me the same. Traditionally, the gardens were planted mostly for food for the family and very little space was given over to flower gardens. Some women told me that they plant fewer vegetables now than previously,...
Many women made the point to me that since families and gardens are now smaller than they were in the past, they are not as busy as they might have been previously; smaller families means there are fewer people to look after, fewer clothes to make, a smaller number of people to cook for and sometimes not needing to cook a midday meal at all if thei...
The move out of farming means that either the husband is ‘working out’ ie away from the farm and family, each day. Or it may mean that there is a non-farm business on the farm, possibly in the buildings that were previously farm buildings. Such businesses include farm-related enterprises or it may mean a small manufacturing enterprise. I visited a ...
Making friends with English seems to be on the increase too, compared with their parents generation. Inviting English friends to stay in their home as well as going to stay with their friends. I have stayed a number of times with Amish friends, even before I was thinking of doing the research. It was because I saw changes taking place when I stayed...
I was surprised by how many women told me that since they left the farm they like to travel around the US and Canada and this was another way to meet people. A small number had even been to Switzerland to see where their ancestors came from and a smaller number had been to Israel. I was surprised to meet a New Order couple with a travel business wh...
As the book makes clear, there are commonalities, for all Amish women’s lives are marked by church meetings, baptism, eight grades of schooling, horse-and-buggy transportation, plain dress, and the German language.
As in most families, gender roles in Amish marriages vary by personality; there are shades of dominance from husband to wife across a wide spectrum, with many variations. In nonfarm families, typically the husband is the primary breadwinner, but in cases where a wife owns a business, she may provide most of the family income.
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Salient characteristics or traits such as egalitarianism, pacifism, and rationality are discussed, and placed in the context of Gelassenheit (yieldedness), of the gender relations within families, and of Raewyn Connell’s notion of “hegemonic masculinity.”
