Through the meshes of patriarchy:: The Male/Female Relationship in the Saguenay Peasant Society (1860–1930)

Abstract

This article offers an analysis of women's life and status within the peasant family of the Saguenay region (Quebec) prior to the completion of the settlement process. After a brief survey of the literature in the field, a variety of sources (including several bodies of oral data) is analyzed, offering the conclusions that: (1) it is useful to carefully distinguish between the macro-social or societal level (State, Church, capital …) and the micro-social sphere of the family and the conjugal couple; (2) the societal scale was made up of unambiguously patriarchal powers, norms, and institutions, whereas at the micro-social level, the reality was much more complex and offered a great deal of diversity; (3) societal constraints heavily influenced the conjugal relationship but not in a deterministic way. The latter remained a social area where the women, somehow, remained able to maneuver, to negotiate and to assert themselves; (4) the same can be said of the thesis that male ownership and control of the means of production necessarily entailed subordination and proletarianization of the married women; and (5) it would be fruitful to explore the idea that male domination was mostly rooted and secured not in the family but in the societal arena.