A Somewhat Untraditional “Trad” Wife: The Case of the Malagasy Women’s Quest for Upward Mobility Through Transnational Marriage to French Men
**This event is open to those of the Stanford community ONLY**
❗️There will also be lunch with the speaker on the same day prior to the colloquium @12:30pm in room 51A❗️
At a point in time when the so-called “trad wife” is having a moment, this talk takes up another case of what is in many ways a “traditional” mode of female action: women’s quest for upward mobility through marriage. It does so through reflections on women from the African island of Madagascar who migrate to France through their marriage to provincial Frenchmen. Focusing on women’s role as mediators between differently located kin networks, the paper focuses on the labor of alignment that women undertake in order to “succeed” in their marriages. The talk concludes with reflections on how these marriages are contributing to the formation of new populations in France at a time when anti-migrant sentiment, and politics, is ubiquitous.
