Abstract

The paper discusses power among women in the rural family. "Mother-in-law" is a cultural stereotype which is charged with negative meaning. Being a mother-in- law is at best something ambigous. In peasant culture this ambiguity is visible because the mother-in-law is both the one with power and the one who teaches the daughter-in-law how to be a skillful farm woman. The relationship between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law may be studied as a part of the gender division of labour. It has much in common with the relationship between the mistress and the female servants. But unlike the maid, the daughter-in-law was not paid for her work, her labour contract being founded on emotional premises. When you are searching for a collective rationality behind the behaviour of more or less "difficult" mother-in-laws, it becomes apparent that economic and emotional motives comprise individual solutions. Therefore, an understanding of the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law may be established within a polarity determined by economy and love. Such a polarity is loaded with tension which in turn is avoided via "common behaviour" which functions like a lightening rod. The myth about the evil mother-in-law makes women responsible for the exploitation of female labour, and thus conceals the patriarchal structure within the rural family. This myth has served as a barrier against alliances among the female generations within the family. It nourishes the assertion that women are their own worst enemies, and thus contributes to keeping this idea alive.

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