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- Title
"Why Do Women Do Such Womenly Things?" The Genre and Socio-historical Analogs of Home Parties.
- Authors
Sullivan, Sheila J.
- Abstract
This article examines the basket party, a type of home party among middle-class women in the United States, from a sociological and historical perspective. Basket party participants view basket parties as an opportunity to socialize without the presence of men in a home-like environment, the use of one's friendship and family network to obligate persons into attendance and the obligation that women feel for justifying purely social encounters with each other. It seems that such parties provide a vehicle through which married women's roles as family consumers are maintained. The rise of a consumption-based society and the presumed social constraints on consumption behavior can be seen as logical antecedents for the emergence of home parties. It can be speculated that home parties represent one type of activity that tends to maintain both the cash-based economy and women's role within that economy.
- Subjects
WOMEN; SOCIALIZATION; SOCIAL psychology; INTERPERSONAL relations; SOCIAL interaction; SOCIAL participation; WOMEN'S studies
- Publication
Women's Studies in Communication, 1990, Vol 13, Issue 1, p66
- ISSN
0749-1409
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1080/07491409.1990.11089741