ABSTRACT
Recent feminist research has greatly enhanced our understanding of women’s networks in the past and present. This chapter examines the conditions that create variation in the structure and functioning of women’s kin and social networks, conditions which allow women to cooperate with one another even in extreme instability, or which create conflict among women. It addresses the interrelated questions concerning the networks of Chicana cannery workers: How are work networks structured and operated, and why are work friendships important to Chicana workers? The chapter shows how women’s work culture—of which coworker networks are an important manifestation-evolved within the context of canning production. It also examines how women’s work networks operate within women’s private lives. The chapter suggests that in order to understand the significance of and variation in women’s work networks one must link the changing conditions of women’s work with family changes.
