Reading to Be Done Before This Discussion:

: Kneafsey, Moya and Rosie Cox. 2002. Food, gender and Irishness: how Irish women in Coventry make home. Irish Geograhy 35:6-15. (PDF)

Things to Bring to This Discussion: Your own notes on the article and/or a printout
Due in Discussion This Week: Answers to questions below
Due in Discussion Next Week: Answers to Questions on Development
Concepts/Places: identity, gender, ethnicity, social reproduction, migration, diaspora, activity segregation, Ireland, United Kingdom, Coventry.

How is This Discussion Connected to the Lecture?

In lecture we explore geographies of identity. We will ask questions about how we derive our identities from our geography and how we in turn inscribe our identities upon the landscapes that we create. We will also discuss how issues of identity and power intersect. Gender is a particularly important facet of identity that refers to the social differences between men and women rather than biological differences related to sex. We will talk about the gender division of labor where men and women are assigned different roles or tasks in society based upon the belief that certain jobs are more appropriate for one gender or the other. Furthermore, you will learn how the gender division of labor helps to reinforce activity segregation where men and women, though they may not be segregated absolutely as in residential segregation, use space differently and unequally. Historically this has meant that men are free to inhabit the public sphere and public spaces, while women's lives have been restricted to the private spaces of the home. Much in our own culture might lead us to believe in the existence of essential differences related to sex. Indeed the title of a popular psychology book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, geographically reinforces this belief by metaphorically arguing that men and women come from different places. The questions of what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman do not have easy and simple answers though. Furthermore, because gender relations vary over space and through time, the answers will be different in different places and at different times.

To prepare for discussion: The article you read for this week integrates a number of issues that we are concerned with this semester. Most immediately it explores how women organize food consumption within the home. However, the article goes beyond a simple examination of gender to examine the importance of women in maintaining and transmitting ethnic traditions related to food consumption as well as how these ethnic traditions reinforce traditional gender norms. Because it examines these issues in the lives of women who have emigrated from Ireland to Coventry, England the article also allows us to think about how unique places are created through the intersection of numerous flows of people and, in this case, food commodities. As we saw in our discussion of the geography of breakfast, food is one of the important ways in which we become interconnected with the rest of the globe. An important idea discussed in the article is the notion of hybrid identity in which immigrants inhabit a third space between their home and their place of settlement. It is useful to think about this idea in the context of current debates about immigration. While immigrants certainly help to change the culture of the receiving area, they also adapt new elements of culture from that area. As you read, think about how it illustrates the ways that these and other issues we have talked about this semester interrelate.

Additional Questions to be discussed

What food related traditions do you have that reinforce a sense of your own ethnic identity? Are any of these traditions gendered?

What other practices and traditions, other than those related to food, help to define ethnicity?

What insights does this article provide in relation to current debates about immigration in this country?

Questions to be Answered and Turned in at the Beginning of Class

Name:
Honor Code:

1. In what kinds of ways do the women that the authors describe fit into Walter's (2001) concept of diaspora in which migrants are "connected by both/and ties to their countries of origin and settlement" (pg 7)?

2. In what three ways do food consumption practices help to define Irish ethnic identity for the Irish immigrants in Coventry?

3. What are some of the specific ways that women participate in the food practices (in question 2) different from men?

4. In what way do ideas about traditional Irish ethnic identity reinforce gender roles?

5. What is one issue or question from the reading that you would like to see discussed in class?

	GEO 101 World Human Geography Discussions Fall 2007 The Geography of Gender and Ethnicity	Printable Discussion Questions
Reading to Be Done Before This Discussion: : Kneafsey, Moya and Rosie Cox. 2002. Food, gender and Irishness: how Irish women in Coventry make home. Irish Geograhy 35:6-15. (PDF) Things to Bring to This Discussion: Your own notes on the article and/or a printout *Due in Discussion This* Week: Answers to questions below Due in Discussion Next Week: Answers to Questions on Development Concepts/Places: identity, gender, ethnicity, social reproduction, migration, diaspora, activity segregation, Ireland, United Kingdom, Coventry. How is This Discussion Connected to the Lecture?** In lecture we explore geographies of identity. We will ask questions about how we derive our identities from our geography and how we in turn inscribe our identities upon the landscapes that we create. We will also discuss how issues of identity and power intersect. Gender is a particularly important facet of identity that refers to the social differences between men and women rather than biological differences related to sex. We will talk about the gender division of labor where men and women are assigned different roles or tasks in society based upon the belief that certain jobs are more appropriate for one gender or the other. Furthermore, you will learn how the gender division of labor helps to reinforce activity segregation where men and women, though they may not be segregated absolutely as in residential segregation, use space differently and unequally. Historically this has meant that men are free to inhabit the public sphere and public spaces, while women's lives have been restricted to the private spaces of the home. Much in our own culture might lead us to believe in the existence of essential differences related to sex. Indeed the title of a popular psychology book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, geographically reinforces this belief by metaphorically arguing that men and women come from different places. The questions of what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman do not have easy and simple answers though. Furthermore, because gender relations vary over space and through time, the answers will be different in different places and at different times. To prepare for discussion: The article you read for this week integrates a number of issues that we are concerned with this semester. Most immediately it explores how women organize food consumption within the home. However, the article goes beyond a simple examination of gender to examine the importance of women in maintaining and transmitting ethnic traditions related to food consumption as well as how these ethnic traditions reinforce traditional gender norms. Because it examines these issues in the lives of women who have emigrated from Ireland to Coventry, England the article also allows us to think about how unique places are created through the intersection of numerous flows of people and, in this case, food commodities. As we saw in our discussion of the geography of breakfast, food is one of the important ways in which we become interconnected with the rest of the globe. An important idea discussed in the article is the notion of hybrid identity in which immigrants inhabit a third space between their home and their place of settlement. It is useful to think about this idea in the context of current debates about immigration. While immigrants certainly help to change the culture of the receiving area, they also adapt new elements of culture from that area. As you read, think about how it illustrates the ways that these and other issues we have talked about this semester interrelate. Additional Questions to be discussed What food related traditions do you have that reinforce a sense of your own ethnic identity? Are any of these traditions gendered? What other practices and traditions, other than those related to food, help to define ethnicity? What insights does this article provide in relation to current debates about immigration in this country? Questions to be Answered and Turned in at the Beginning of Class Name: Honor Code: 1. In what kinds of ways do the women that the authors describe fit into Walter's (2001) concept of diaspora in which migrants are "connected by both/and ties to their countries of origin and settlement" (pg 7)? 2. In what three ways do food consumption practices help to define Irish ethnic identity for the Irish immigrants in Coventry? 3. What are some of the specific ways that women participate in the food practices (in question 2) different from men? 4. In what way do ideas about traditional Irish ethnic identity reinforce gender roles? 5. What is one issue or question from the reading that you would like to see discussed in class?
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