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Traditional Roles and Modern Work Patterns Italian-American Women in New York City william egelman 2000 Traditional Italian society long followed gender-based societal patterns. Male and female roles were clearly delineated and integral to the entire family matrix. Southern Italian folk culture—important because approximately 80 percent of all Italian immigrants to the United States came from southern Italy—was, at least on the surface, patriarchal with men, capa della famiglia, head of the family. Johnson (1985, 108) notes that ‘‘at least nominally (the husband) was considered to be the supreme authority over the wife, children , unmarried sisters, and younger brothers. He was respected, feared, and revered.’’ Wives were to give their husbands due respect. When a husband returned home from work he expected his wife to ‘‘present a clean house, orderly children, a hot dinner and clean clothes’’ (Cronin 1970, 69). Such gender roles became part of the cultural baggage the Italian immigrants brought with them. Most Italian immigrants, arriving at the turn of the century landed and remained in New York City. The New York they came to was the most urban, and one might add, urbane city in the world. While the old way emphasized family, community, and tradition, New York City was emerging as a ‘‘modern metropolis,’’ with its emphasis on individualism, personal achievement, and change. In this new environment there was great concern that young women should be raised in the right way, in the manner of traditional southern Italian culture. But New York City, where many of them resided, and the larger society underwent substantial change during the twentieth century. Obviously, these changes would also alter the lives of Italian-American women. One example of this change was the emergence of modern urban culture . In 1986, Kathy Peiss pointed out that at the turn of the century the 78 Traditional Roles and Modern Work Patterns 79 nature of women’s work changed. In part because of the development of department stores, there was an increase in the number of white-collar jobs. Demand increased for salespersons, stenographers, typists, and other jobs that came to be seen as ‘‘women’s jobs.’’ Immigration helped to fuel the expansion of the American workforce and, to some degree, the sons and daughters of the immigrants filled the increasing number of job slots. Clearly, by providing work outside the home, these workplace experiences freed a number of young women from traditional parental constraints. It is in this expanding work environment that the daughters of immigrant women became members of the urban working class. A number of them entered the needle trades as sewing machine operators. While perhaps not as physically straining as other types of work, the women often worked long hours for relatively little pay and no real work benefits. In Mary Jane Capozzoli ’s study of three generations of women in Nassau County (1990), she found about three-fourths of the first-generation women were working in blue-collar occupations. They were sewing machine operators, seamstresses, and dressmakers. As she notes in her study, ‘‘the jobs that Italian women got were mostly low-income, low-status, and sexually segregated’’ (Capozzolli 1990, 85). It is this pattern of work among Italian-American women to which we now turn our attention. As we shall see, increases in educational levels will affect vocational attainments. Utilizing 1980 and 1990 census data we can compare Italian-American women in New York City over time, and to the total female population of the city.* Table 1 presents data comparing Italian-American women with all women in New York City. Italian-American women appear to follow the same overall employment pattern as all women in New York City. The slight differences in percentages for employed and unemployed are not signi ficant given the different population bases. One key variable related to employment is education. Table 2 presents data on education for all females in New York City, and for Italian-American females in 1980 and in 1990. This allows for two types of analyses: comparing Italian and non-Italian women in 1990; and comparing Italian women in 1980 and 1990 for internal changes in educational patterns. Italian-American women have lower levels of higher education when compared to all females in New York City. For example, 15.2 percent of all * This chapter, published in 2000, focuses on the ten-year period noted—a snapshot of a significant moment for Italian-American women. Later related research findings can be found in...

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