ABSTRACT
Among Latin American immigrants, the relations between the conventional construction of gender types and the circulation of market commodities have interacted in such a way as to enhance female subordination in traditional household practices. Within traditional households, and Latin American migrant families in Australia are no exception to this, budgeting and patterns of consumption are part of the woman’s managerial activities. Latin American migrant women, like many Southern Europeans, were no exception to this, and went predominantly into industries such as clothing, footwear and textiles. This chapter suggests that for Latin American, and possibly other, housewives in Australia, the giving and receiving of household appliances help to emphasise that so-called feminine domestic tasks are in economic and practical terms conditioned by female subordination to men. It argues that the fatal gift retains its symbolic significance in offering to housewife a ‘reward’ for her double shift—for work she does in her paid employment as well as her fulfilment of kinship obligations.
