Tokoroa women: ladies, girls and dark horses

Abstract

Tokoroa is a central North Island pulp and paper mill town, built in the post-war boom period of the early 1950s. This study of the women of Tokoroa analyses statistical, textual and photographic content from a variety of sources to reveal both visible and invisible realities. New Zealand Population Census statistics for Tokoroa women, and articles and photographs in the local newspaper, the South Waikato News, 1987, construct women only in relation to men, as occasional workers, beautiful objects, whose whole identity lies in the caring and servicing of others. It is only in sports, and then only in women's division of sports, that women are identified as strong, skilful, aggressive and competitive. Tokoroa Women's Refuge statistics 1985 - 1987, and statistics for Tokoroa from the New Zealand National Police Headquarters, 1987, show that the Census statistics and the newspaper are able to show only one part of women's lives. A more complete understanding of the lives of Tokoroa women requires not only the analysis of normative data such as the South Waikato News and the New Zealand Population Census, but also the analysis of the non-normative data, in this case statistics from the New Zealand Police National Headquarters and from the Tokoroa Women's Refuge.. Extending the analysis beyond the concepts of production and reproduction in which work is the primary analysing category reveals a process of sexuality which constructs women into the gender female of our society.