Traditions and Transitions folk narrative in the contemporary world
16-20
July 2001 The University of Melbourne, Australia
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Traditions and Transitions folk narrative in the contemporary world |
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Linda Bugiene is unable to attend the congress and present this paper.
In recent years, the
number of cars in Lithuania has been increasing dramatically. As has the number
of women drivers. If during 1970s and 1980s having a private car was considered
to be a luxury, and driving it reserved for ‘the head of the family’, the rapid
social and economic changes of the 1990s made it necessary and possible for
many women to acquire a car of their own.
Women represent the majority of those who acquired their licence of the past
five years. Naturally, such a ‘female invasion’ of what had previously been
regarded a purely ‘masculine’ sphere, generated all kinds of tensions as well
as a considerable amount of popular lore. Women were labelled as bad drivers,
ignorant and incompetent when it came to technical matters relating to cars,
always getting in the way of fast and professional male drivers, etc.
Strikingly enough, many women exhibited a general willingness to go along
with these stereotypes, agreeing to play the inferior in this instance.
Recently, even women's magazines have taken up this issue, discussing various
subtleties of driving, and describing (as edifying examples) those women who do
drive well and enjoy it. This paper focuses largely on the media discourse on
this issue and draws on a number of personal interviews with women (both
drivers and non-drivers) that aimed to analyse their experiences and
motivations.
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