Gender, Space, and Objects in Divorced Families

Abstract

Scholars have conducted extensive research on the significance of divorce for children, adolescents, and young adults (e.g., Hetherington, 2002; Wallerstein, Lewis, & Blakeslee, 2000), and on how divorce differentially impacts sons and daughters, and mothers and fathers (e.g., Booth & Amato, 1994a; Furstenberg, 1990). We seek to tie this body of work to its manifestations in material culture (physical artifacts that hold social meaning in people's lives) and home spaces by applying a symbolic interactionist approach to an analysis of in-depth interviews and surveys from 22 young adults in the Pacific Northwest whose parents divorced while they were children or adolescents. Young adulthood (late teens and early twenties) is a particularly useful developmental stage in which to ask about past divorce experiences because it is a time when identity salience and behavior patterns and roles stabilize (Needham & Austin, 2010).Specifically, we ask the question: How do young adults whose parents divorce experience the presence or absence of traditional gender roles as manifest in the use of domestic space and objects? We presume that the collection, arrangement, and use of artifacts and spaces in adolescents' homes reflect how families "do gender" (West & Zimmerman, 1987) and reflect perceptions of and relationships with each parent after their parents' divorce.BackgroundGender and Family DissolutionGender roles, or the set of behavioral and attitudinal expectations and patterns of expression that a culture defines as desirable for men and women, and girls and boys (Andersen 20003), are socially constructed in interactions and influenced by institutional norms. Social actors "do gender" (West & Zimmerman, 1987) by enacting and displaying masculine or feminine roles in interactional processes. These roles are affected by patterned collective expectations about what it means to be feminine or masculine (Coltrane, 1998). The family is a gendered institution, such that men's and women's roles therein are manifest at the interactional level and are also shaped by structural forces such as labor force participation rates, cultural ideals about gender, and patriarchal relations (Andersen, 2000; Baca Zinn, Eitzen, & Wells, 2011). Therefore, despite gender being socially constructed, and thus susceptible to revision, role expectations for men and women still differ in families (Wharton, 2005).Since it is in families, as primary socializing agents, where gender roles are first introduced, it is important to investigate how and whether different family structures may produce different types of roles. In fact, there is a large body of research on differential divorce experiences for men and women, often referred to as "his" divorce and "her" divorce. Citing increased freedom and improved standard of living for men, and decreased standard of living and isolation for women, scholars who investigate the gendered divorce experience for men and women focus primarily on economic inequality, with men's socioeconomic status likely to be higher than women's (Baca Zinn, Eitzen, & Wells, 2011).Research on the gendered effects of divorce on parent-child relationship quality provides mixed findings. Some scholars suggest that mothers' relationships with their children largely are unaffected by divorce (White, Booth, & Edwards, 1986), whereas others (Umberson, 1992) show that the mother's decline in financial resources following a divorce may add strain to the parent-child relationship. Overall, mothers tend to maintain stronger emotional relationships with their daughters than their sons (Lawton, Silverstein, & Bengtson, 1994b), while fathers experience a general weakening of relationships with their children after divorce (Seltzer, 1994), especially with their daughters (Booth & Amato, 1994a).The Impact of Divorce on Children's Gender Roles and AttitudesResearchers also discuss how and whether divorce affects children's attitudes about men's and women's roles in society (Booth & Amato, 1994b; Kiecolt & Acock, 1988; McHale, Crouter, & Whiteman, 2003). …