Household Cycles and Task Management: Valuing the Productive Involvement of Wives in a Visayan Island Fishing Community

Abstract

In the feminist tradition of recognizing the potentials of women as human beings capable of managing their own affairs, this case study will reinterpret the stories of the wives in various stages of the household cycles in Apo Island as they work side by side with their husbands to break the constraints imposed upon them by the island's cultural and natural environment. This paper argues that although their reproductive tasks have limited their involvement in the productive domain of their husbands, wives at the height of child bearing and rearing have nevertheless successfully utilized some social mechanisms to help them cope with demands of reproductive tasks in order to find time to participate in productive activities. Meanwhile, those who have already completed their reproductive years are now able to devote more time in fish trading and other economic activities.