Gender issues and research

Why am I writing my project to the women in my family? A good question that deserves some thought and reflection.

In my family, the women have typically been the ones to preserve the family stories and dig into past history and genealogy. I know of three women in the family who have actively pursued genealogy research. I do have a second cousin (male) on mom's side that has done some compiling of family history, but I don't know how much, but at least one male has shown interest. I have five brothers and not a one of them is interested in the past history of this family. My two uncles on my mom's side weren't not inclined to tell any stories, but I will say that my grandfather loved to tell stories. Even so, it was my grandmother who told the most stories and talked about family members. My grandfather talked more about his own stories. Even on my dad's side of the family, anything that we wanted to know about past family members, we asked my grandmother. My grandfather didn't have the answers.

Traditions and gatherings within the family for the most part have been put together by the women. As the oldest sibling of nine, I am usually the one responsible for family gatherings now. I guess I also feel the sense of responsibility to keep the family stories alive and passed down. When we held family reunions on my maternal grandmother's side, each family took a turn to organize it and it was a joint affair between siblings so I can't say only the women put that together.

I do feel that research and genealogy are gender dictated. Of course, that doesn't mean just women work on genealogy, but I think the majority are women. My idea is framed for several reasons. First of course, is the example of my family with most of the family history being passed down or gathered by the women. My second thought on this is that typically women have been the nurturers of the family so they are tuned into family and how it all ties together. I also think that not everyone is tuned into digging into the past history of families. Some people just have the interest to begin with especially if a person is already interested in history.