“Both Mom and Dad Should Go to Work so the Family Would Have More Money”: Children’s Attitudes Towards Occupational Gender Roles in the Village of Metztitlán, Mexico

Abstract

While the negotiation of gender roles among adults in Mexico has received considerable academic attention (Hirsch, 2003, Guttman, 1996, Melhuus, 1992, Romanucci-Ross, 1986), little is known about how Mexican children reason about gender issues and how they deal with these concerns in their everyday interactions. My research is based on a 12-month-long ethnographic fieldwork in Metztitlán, a mestizo, Spanish-speaking village with about 5000 inhabitants, located in the State of Hidalgo, central Mexico. In this paper , I will explore the attitudes of children from 6 to 11 years of age to occupational gender roles in a setting where the discourse on gender equality and its manifestations, explicitly promoted both at school and in certain situations in many homes, coexists with strongly pervasive expressions of ideas rooted in traditional values.