Cutting Into The Meatpacking Line Analysis

In chapter three of her book, “Cutting into the Meatpacking Line”, Deborah Fink gave emphasis and expressed importance to gender considerations and divisions as it is stated in “laws, rural culture, in plant management policies, in packing unions, and in everyday life”, (Fink, p. 73). She wanted to center our attention to gender in general, not just about women’s susceptibility to exploitation both socially and economically, but also men’s “vulnerabilities” about their “manhood”, which could lead them to either connect or unite with women or go against them. Furthermore, Fink explained that women cannot just remain in the shadows of men and be remained unrecognized. Similarly, Fink stated that “if we try to discard gender markers and make …show more content…
75). Furthermore, Fink also discussed how “decency” was viewed among rural women. She explained that if women who were forced to work for a living just like “Elsa”, whom she used as an example, despite the struggle of not having her own family farm or general store, Elsa was considered “indecent”, (Fink, p. 76). Similarly, the story of the Harvey Family also supported Fink’s claim that women’s work was not recognized as compared to their male counterparts who were considered to be …show more content…
She supported her claim with her own personal experience from the hiring process, to the floors which she had observed, were mostly still dominated by men. However, this also does not deny the fact that Fink herself has somewhat relied on men for support to get her way around the plant after she has established a “gendered friendship” (Fink, p. 107) with one of the workers while working for