This is gonna sound goofy but a subtly empowering thing I’ve experienced in ranching is when men don’t expect me to cook for them because I’m a woman.
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Recently one of the older partners we work with said “I can do the cooking so you can do the cowboying” 😭
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I can make a pretty good spread for a crew but when that’s my task I treat it like work and don’t do it in the evenings because it’s as much a part of the job as anything else.
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Is this just context norms? Men seem to enjoying claiming outdoor grilling duties in America even in new cowboy contexts.
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Men like to be seen with the meat. But how many like to plan the whole meal, including sides, drinks, dessert, etc., to be served potentially 15 miles from the closest kitchen, for an indeterminate # of people?
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Depends on the context; if branding far away from a camp one generally preps in the kitchen and then brings everything out, heats some stuff up or grills, sometimes on the branding fire sometimes on a gas grill
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But to answer what might be part of your question, there are old norms in agriculture that assume women will cook and not participate in much else; not knocking women for whom that’s true but it’s often a job better done by a man who isn’t as involved in the cow work.
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