IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/osruwp/18905.html

Men Without Sawmills: Masculinity, Rural Poverty, And Family Stability

Author

Listed:
  • Sherman, Jennifer

Abstract

Using ethnographic and interview data, this paper explores the impacts of economic strain and job loss on the construction and experience of masculinity, as well as the effects of threats to masculine identity on family stability in a rural American community. It looks at these issues specifically with reference to the high correlation between poverty and single parenting, in order to better understand the causal mechanisms responsible for this link in a rural setting. It challenges the mainstream argument that it is women's marriage choices that are mainly responsible for this correlation. Building on and extending the work of previous researchers, the paper argues that men's experiences with masculinity in times of economic and labor market stress seriously undermine their abilities to sustain functioning relationships.

Suggested Citation

  • Sherman, Jennifer, 2005. "Men Without Sawmills: Masculinity, Rural Poverty, And Family Stability," Working Papers 18905, Oregon State University, Rural Poverty Research Center (RPRC).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:osruwp:18905
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.18905
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/18905/files/wp050003.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.18905?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn & Jane Waldfogel, 2000. "Understanding Young Women's Marriage Decisions: The Role of Labor and Marriage Market Conditions," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 53(4), pages 624-647, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2005-046 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Dorn, David & Autor, David & Hanson, Gordon, 2017. "When Work Disappears: Manufacturing Decline and the Falling Marriage-Market Value of Men," CEPR Discussion Papers 11878, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Bonilla, Roberto & Kiraly, Francis, 2013. "Marriage wage premium in a search equilibrium," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 107-115.
    4. Doyeon An & Sang-Lim Lee & Hyekyung Woo, 2022. "Marriage Intention among Korean Young Adults: Trends and Influencing Factors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-14, July.
    5. Stephanie Aaronson, 2002. "The rise in lifetime earnings inequality among men," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2002-21, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    6. Julio Elías, 2003. "The Link between Unemployment and the Marriage Rate: Buenos Aires, Argentina," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 40(121), pages 505-514.
    7. Joelle Abramowitz, 2014. "Turning back the ticking clock: the effect of increased affordability of assisted reproductive technology on women’s marriage timing," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 27(2), pages 603-633, April.
    8. Fenaba R. Addo & Jason N. Houle & Sharon Sassler, 2019. "The Changing Nature of the Association Between Student Loan Debt and Marital Behavior in Young Adulthood," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 86-101, March.
    9. Chris Herbst, 2011. "The Impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit on Marriage and Divorce: Evidence from Flow Data," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 30(1), pages 101-128, February.
    10. Shoichi Sasaki, 2014. "An empirical analysis of the effect of increasing male wage inequality on female marriage behavior in Japan," Discussion Papers 1401, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    11. Gould, Eric D. & Paserman, M. Daniele, 2003. "Waiting for Mr. Right: rising inequality and declining marriage rates," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 257-281, March.
    12. Engdahl, Mattias & Godard, Mathilde & Skans, Oskar N., 2019. "Entrer sur le marché du travail en période de récession : quels effets sur le parcours familial ?," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 1903, CEPREMAP.
    13. Arif A. Mamun, 2006. "The White Picket Fence Dream: Effects of Assets on the Choice of Family Union," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 01ccaca54ad44dc89c4f3f393, Mathematica Policy Research.
    14. David S. Loughran & Julie Zissimopoulos, 2008. "Why Wait? The Effect of Marriage and Childbearing on the Wages of Men and Women," Working Papers WR-482-1, RAND Corporation.
    15. Christopher Brown & Randall Kesselring, 2006. "Declining marriage ratios of young black women: Testing alternative economic hypotheses," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 33(4), pages 27-48, March.
    16. Dirk Bethmann & Michael Kvasnicka, 2011. "The institution of marriage," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(3), pages 1005-1032, July.
    17. Shannon Seitz & Geoffrey Sanzenbacher & Andrew Beauchamp & Meghan Skira, 2014. "Deadbeat Dads," 2014 Meeting Papers 435, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    18. Lixin Colin Xu & Christine Zhen-Wei Qiang & Limin Wang, 2003. "The Timing of Marriage in China," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 4(2), pages 343-357, November.
    19. Ong, David & Wang, Jue, 2015. "Income attraction: An online dating field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 13-22.
    20. Pavel JELNOV, 2023. "The marriage age U-shape," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(2), pages 211-252, June.
    21. Shoichi Sasaki, 2017. "Empirical analysis of the effects of increasing wage inequalities on marriage behaviors in Japan," Discussion Papers 1705, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:osruwp:18905. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rprccus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.