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Elizabeth Edna Wangui, PhD Ohio University

Explore how Masai men and women negotiate gender roles and power dynamics through performances in livestock production. The study draws from Butler and Arendt's theories, highlighting labor control, space utilization, and gendered aspects of livelihood. Analyzing household interviews reveals intricate negotiations in labor allocation, with women strategically expanding their negotiation space while withholding resources. The findings underscore the complex nature of gender identity negotiation and power dynamics in Masai communities.

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Elizabeth Edna Wangui, PhD Ohio University

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  1. Performance Politics and the Spaces of Negotiation: Pastoralist Livelihood Change and New Gender Roles Elizabeth Edna Wangui, PhD Ohio University

  2. Background Labor allocation in livestock production Wangui (2008)

  3. Concerns • Extend Butler’s theory of performativity (1990) with Arendt’s theory of action (1959) • Examine how gendered inequalities are negotiated in the control of labor • Investigate the role that space plays in the process of negotiation

  4. Methods Household interviews

  5. Theories

  6. Performances available to men • The threat of beating “…The fimbo (cane) is the one that makes masai women respect and obey their husbands completely…” (Peter) “…when he talks to me and sees that I have become submissive and stopped what was making him annoyed then he leaves me alone. But if I try to compete with him, I will not leave that place without being beaten…” (Mary)

  7. Performances available to men • “… my husband sometimes tells me that I must finish the job by a certain time. When this happens I find myself hurrying to complete the job because you know if it is that time and I have not completed the job, there will be problems and I can be beaten or another bad thing…” (Lucy)

  8. Performances available to men • Conversion of individual assets to collective assets • Sell ‘her’ livestock • Sell her crops • Assign her more duties

  9. Performances available to women • Withholding her labor • From a few activities “.. My husband cannot beat me over farming duties because he already knows that farming is hard … but it is easy to be beaten over livestock duties because they are easy… “ (Jane) “… You see a woman like this one, sometimes guests can arrive and I tell her to make tea for the guests, and she tells me that there is no milk, even when I saw her carrying it in …she can say she has given it to the children” (James)

  10. Performances available to women • From most activities for a day • From all activities for an indefinite period of time

  11. Negotiating and gender identity • The role of space • Beatings happen outside in private space (man+woman) • Women strategically expand their negotiation space (man+woman+others) • Women withhold resources associated with their spaces

  12. Conclusions • Complex process of negotiation underlying new gendered aspects of Masai livelihoods • Power and performance • Spaces of negotiation – men and women create increasing “public-ness” of their performances in strategic ways

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