Concluding Thoughts about Gender and Scrapbooking

Each Wednesday, I write a post from my dissertation.
My respondents made scrapbooking fit in their lives. For the most part, they did not scrapbook because they felt obligated to scrapbook as mothers, wives, or as female members of their family. Respondents scrapbook because they want to scrapbook. They scrapbook for themselves and most consider the albums their own rather than their family’s albums. Perhaps it is because my sample had higher income and educational attainment than average that their experience as scrapbookers appears to be more empowering than oppressive. Female respondents with children may have had to go to a scrapbook store or have a husband commit to childcare duties so that they could scrapbook, but they were able to get their husbands to do these things without argument. These women demonstrate how leisure can be something that women are entitled to and scrapbooking just happens to be their leisure activity of choice.

Though men typically are not compiling a scrapbook that does not mean, however, that they do not contribute to the scrapbooks their partners compile. In cases where husbands control the economic resources, he influences the quality and quantity of supplies his wife can purchase. Importantly, none of my respondents say they did without because of lack of resources even when they depend on their husbands providing their scrapbooking budget.

Many respondents explain how they request input from their husbands in their scrapbooks. They request journaling from male partners, have them take photographs for them or collect memorabilia. The respondent who most successfully, obtains her husband’s input on the journaling did so because they keep a family blog. He is much more likely to post on the family blog than sit down and type up journaling expressly for the scrapbook. This respondent regularly includes these blog posts in her scrapbooks; therefore, her husband does contribute to the family scrapbook.

Scrapbooking is an interesting hobby to study in order to explore gender roles. It is easy to assume that it sets women back decades in terms of gender equality, but the reality is much different. Though, it can certainly be oppressive to some, for most it seems, scrapbooking is a source of empowerment.

Related Posts
The Family Album is Like a Resume for a Man
Scrapbooking Gender
Men and Women Scrapbooking
The Scrapbook Industry Depends on Women Doing Gender
Can I be a Scrapbooker and a Feminist?

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Stephanie