From a Farm Woman to a B&B Host: Life Experience and Empowerment in the Process of Identity Transformation
Date Issued
2014
Date
2014
Author(s)
Chang, Wei-Shun
Abstract
In response to the agricultural transformation, some farmers start running B&Bs in rural villages and the female hosts are usually play important roles since their images as a mother can make the B&B a warm and cozy home. These female hosts even become the main managers of their B&Bs while their husbands work as their assistants. This gender role is quite different from how it would be in a traditional agricultural society where women are seen as invisible farmers while their husbands are the master in both farms and home. However, the task of a B&B host is similar to the housework and the caring job that a housewife is expected to do. In this case, while a household space and housework are regarded as the limitation and oppression on women, would it be possible to empower these farm women by running B&Bs?
In order to know and analyze these women’s life experience of becoming a B&B host from a farm woman, six B&Bs are chosen case study. By conducting in-depth interviews with the B&B hosts and field observation, this study tries to figure out the meaning of empowerment in the process of identity transition. Besides the identity and task of these female hosts, the spatial and industrial characteristics of B&Bs are all critical factors for analyzing this empowering process.
According to the result of this study, running a B&B provides farm women with the chance of being empowered. Although the identity of a B&B host intensifies these women’s mothering tasks and increases their emotional labor, it gives some new meanings to the housework. These women are able to explore their subjectivity and social experience by doing the tasks of a female host. In addition, comparing with the assistant roles they played before, they are now the main managers of their B&Bs. Regarding these women’s experience, we can rethink about the idea of seeing motherhood or household space as a limitation to women. And this process of identity transformation is also a good case for discussing the meaning of empowerment with multiple and complicated perspectives.
Subjects
農村婦女
民宿女主人
農村民宿
賦權
母職
Type
thesis
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