Faculty Publications

Creating An Artistic Self: Amateur Quilters And Subjective Careers

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Sociological Focus

Volume

39

Issue

3

First Page

193

Last Page

216

Abstract

As some contemporary U.S. women reach middle age, they develop interests in personal activities, filling time and space once occupied by family care work. As this occurs, women often also develop subjective careers in these new spaces—where they construct both the goals and measures of success, independent of mainstream definitions. In this interview study with 70 U.S. midlife women, I examine the process of developing a subjective career around amateur quilting practices. As women begin to self-identify as amateur quitters, they also begin to define success as it is important to them—learning to quilt, making connections with others who quilt, and maintaining kin ties through giving quilts to others. Consequently, women redefine the role of quilting from a leisure activity to a subjective career—for although quilting adheres to the prescriptions of traditional femininity, quilting also allows women to carve out time and space just for themselves and their chosen leisure pursuits. © 2006, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Department

Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology

Original Publication Date

1-1-2006

DOI of published version

10.1080/00380237.2006.10571285

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