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(-Now we are “Women with Wings”, because ...
-Women: Because we are flying.
-They do not stop us anymore.
-We feel free.
-They are not going to stop us anymore, we cannot stop because she’s leaving; she’s
going to say: “so much of my time and place that I've invested for these ladies to stop when
I leave…”).
Gender Roles Within the Community
Gender roles are those social norms and behaviors that are considered socially
appropriate for people of a given sex. Bahía de Los Ángeles is a fishing community,
men go fishing and women take care of their children and their homes. It has been
men who traditionally participate in conservation activities. Thus, gender roles are
reflected in the opposition of their husbands to participate in activities outside the
home:
Unas experiencias de mi compañera que es lo contrario pues ella si batalló para que su
marido viera que si era verdad porque a lo mejor que decía “estás perdiendo el tiempo
Alejandra no te vaya a dar equis pero ya cuando el vió era en serio…”
(One of the women struggled to have her husband see that we were involved in a serious
activity, he said, “You’re wasting time Alejandra”, until he realized that it really was a serious activity…)
This opposition was not only within the family nucleus but also in the community.
Because of social construction one associates women in the home, in the kitchen
and with their children, not on the sea or at the beach, monitoring birds and least
generating income from that activity:
-Era así de “en lugar de andar ahí, váyanse a limpiar su casa” comentarios así, entre la
misma familia, eran comentarios como de “¿qué hacen ahí?” pero no saben que uno empieza a amar lo que hace, es como en cualquier cosa...
-Ahora del diplomado decían “van a perder tantas horas ahí sentadas, para nada”
-Las credenciales dicen que no nos las van a mandar...
(-People said: “instead of going there, go clean your house”, that sort of comments,
Even within our own family they made comments like: “what are you doing there?” But
they did not know that you start loving what you do, it's like with anything else you do...
-When we took the workshop they said, “you are going to waste so many hours sitting
there for nothing”
-They say that they’re not going to send us the certification cards)
Creating a group of women who carry out bird conservation activities shows dissatisfaction with the established gender roles; it represents the challenge of demonstrating through different actions the capacity they have as women, mothers, and
housewives to carry out other activities that have an impact on the environment and
in the community:
También pues demostrarle a la gente que no era nomas entrar a un grupo y ya y también que
las mujeres podemos…
11 “Women with Wings”: An Experience of Participatory Monitoring in a Natural…
(-Now we are “Women with Wings”, because ...
-Women: Because we are flying.
-They do not stop us anymore.
-We feel free.
-They are not going to stop us anymore, we cannot stop because she’s leaving; she’s
going to say: “so much of my time and place that I've invested for these ladies to stop when
I leave…”).
Gender Roles Within the Community
Gender roles are those social norms and behaviors that are considered socially
appropriate for people of a given sex. Bahía de Los Ángeles is a fishing community,
men go fishing and women take care of their children and their homes. It has been
men who traditionally participate in conservation activities. Thus, gender roles are
reflected in the opposition of their husbands to participate in activities outside the
home:
Unas experiencias de mi compañera que es lo contrario pues ella si batalló para que su
marido viera que si era verdad porque a lo mejor que decía “estás perdiendo el tiempo
Alejandra no te vaya a dar equis pero ya cuando el vió era en serio…”
(One of the women struggled to have her husband see that we were involved in a serious
activity, he said, “You’re wasting time Alejandra”, until he realized that it really was a serious activity…)
This opposition was not only within the family nucleus but also in the community.
Because of social construction one associates women in the home, in the kitchen
and with their children, not on the sea or at the beach, monitoring birds and least
generating income from that activity:
-Era así de “en lugar de andar ahí, váyanse a limpiar su casa” comentarios así, entre la
misma familia, eran comentarios como de “¿qué hacen ahí?” pero no saben que uno empieza a amar lo que hace, es como en cualquier cosa...
-Ahora del diplomado decían “van a perder tantas horas ahí sentadas, para nada”
-Las credenciales dicen que no nos las van a mandar...
(-People said: “instead of going there, go clean your house”, that sort of comments,
Even within our own family they made comments like: “what are you doing there?” But
they did not know that you start loving what you do, it's like with anything else you do...
-When we took the workshop they said, “you are going to waste so many hours sitting
there for nothing”
-They say that they’re not going to send us the certification cards)
Creating a group of women who carry out bird conservation activities shows dissatisfaction with the established gender roles; it represents the challenge of demonstrating through different actions the capacity they have as women, mothers, and
housewives to carry out other activities that have an impact on the environment and
in the community:
También pues demostrarle a la gente que no era nomas entrar a un grupo y ya y también que
las mujeres podemos…
11 “Women with Wings”: An Experience of Participatory Monitoring in a Natural…