Renato Rosaldo
A Theoretical Overview
Domestic: “those minimal institutions and modes of activity that are organized immediately
around one or more mothers and their children” (p.23)
Public: “activities, institutions, and forms of association that link, rank, organize, or subsume
particular mother-child groups” (p.23)
Main arguments:
 universal gender asymmetries are to be found in the universal
domestic/public opposition

women’s lack of value is related to their confinement in the domestic
sphere
(they gain power when they enter the men’s world or by creating their
own social universe)

the most egalitarian societies are those in which men value and participate
in domestic life
Rosaldo
uses the “public and domestic opposition as a framework to identify and explore the place of
male and female in psychological, cultural, social, and economic aspects of human life” (p. 23).

public-domestic opposition does not determine but underlies the cultural stereotypes or
asymmetries between the sexes

women absorbed in domestic activities because of their role as mothers
Interrelated factors which make women universally the “second sex”
Personality:
(Chodorow)
girls → “little mother” (continuity, acquiring “naturally”)
boys → men (break away, learning)

girls - integrated into the adult world through work vertically (more responsibilities
during childhood)
boys – integrated into the adult world through work horizontally (less responsibilities
during childhood)

girls- their status is defined by age, NOT ability, close association (love, acceptance)
boys – their status is defined by opposition to family, disassociation (proof of manhood)

girls - encounter others as individuals (through their nurturing, responsive role)
personal relations → success or failure
boys – encounter others as the occupants of formal roles
male hierarchies → success or failure
Authority:
women are close to their children → diffuse belonging, personal commitment (informal
groups) → less control, less manipulation, less special
men are distant → abstract authority → manipulate social environment, control, special
Achieved and ascribed status:
women – continuity
men – achievement
Nature and culture:
women – nature
men – culture
Women as anomalies:
no formal or institutionalized room for female activities
(e.g. virgins but necessary for reproduction, no formal authority yet have informal power)
lacking legitimate power → labeled as anomalies or dangerous
Production:
general trend: female production is less public, oriented towards domestic needs