Table Of ContentAbstract
Title of Dissertation: AMISH WOMEN, BUSINESS SENSE:
OLD ORDER WOMEN
ENTREPRENEURS IN THE LANCASTER
COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, TOURIST
MARKETPLACE
Beth E. Graybill, Doctor of Philosophy, 2009
Dissertation directed by: Professor John L. Caughey
American Studies
This dissertation is an examination of Amish businesswomen and gender roles in
the tourist marketplace of Lancaster County, PA. Tourism in Lancaster is a $1.5 billion
business; tourists largely come because of the Amish and values associated with them.
Recently, tourism has come to provide an important source of income for many Old
Order Mennonite and Amish women, whose business enterprises cater primarily to a
tourist market. Among the Amish, known for their separation from wider society, tourism
now puts many women on the front lines in dealing with outsiders, a monumental shift
historically. Thus, this ethnography of Amish businesswomen serves as a useful lens for
examining Amish women’s changing gender roles in Lancaster County today. Moreover,
it fills a significant gap in the literature, as virtually nothing has been written about
Amish women, to date.
Mine is a micro-study that examines tourism, business, and gender through the
words of Amish women themselves, and my analysis of them. Using ethnography and life
history I examine the lives of Old Order Amish and Mennonite women whose businesses
range from quilt shops to greenhouses to serving meals in their homes. As I show, the
ways in which these women handle their business, family, and community roles
sometimes involves extensions of traditional roles and sometimes departures from them.
AMISH WOMEN, BUSINESS SENSE:
OLD ORDER WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN THE
LANCASTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, TOURIST MARKETPLACE
by
Beth E. Graybill
Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
American Studies
2009
Advisory Committee:
Professor John L. Caughey, Chair
Professor A. Lynn Bolles
Professor Katie King
Professor Claire Goldberg Moses
Professor Mary Corbin Sies
© Copyright by
Beth E. Graybill
2009
Foreword (Epigraphs)
“It is possible, I suppose, that sometime
we will learn everything
there is to learn: what the world is, for example,
and what it means.
…What do I know?
But this: it is heaven itself to take what is given,
to see what is plain; what the sun lights up willingly;
for example … the suitability of the field for the daisies, and the
daises for the field.”
– Mary Oliver, “Daisies,” Why I Wake Early
“Despite our differences [they are Plain, I am not], we are both people of faith,
specifically of Anabaptist persuasion.”
– Pauline Stevick, Beyond the Plain and Simple: A Patchwork of Amish Lives
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Dedication
This dissertation is dedicated to my Anabaptist women ancestors, on whose shoulders I
stand and with whose voices I speak.
Figure A, above is based on an image from the title page of the 1749 American reprinting of The
Martyrs Mirror (an important book in Anabaptist, i.e. Amish and Mennonite, history), this icon
was redrawn as a woman and used as the symbol for the first ever academic conference on
Anabaptist women held in June 1995, on whose planning committee I served.
© Julie Musselman, 1995, used with permission.1
1 See, “The Digging Woman – An Image for the “Quiet in the Land” Conference, MCC Women’s Concerns
Report, Number 124 (January-February 1996), Mennonite Central Committee, Akron, Pa., p. 3. For
discussion of the original (male) image, see Julia Kasdorf, “‘Work and Hope’: Tradition and Translation of
an Anabaptist Adam,” Mennonite Quarterly Review, Vol. 49, No. 2, (April 1995), pp. 178-204.
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Acknowledgements
Special thanks is due my dissertation advisor, John Caughey, who first introduced
me to qualitative life-history and ethnographic methods and drew me in by encouraging
me to tell Mennonite and later Amish women’s stories. I have valued his understanding
of the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Old Order milieu, his example of collegiality in
the academy, and his model of and deep respect for cultural differences and building
cultural understanding. I thank him for continuing to convey a spirit of encouragement
about my work as this project dragged through years and several life and job changes.
Many thanks to Katie King, who first introduced me to feminist theory and
modeled women and religion as a legitimate area of study.
Deep gratitude to Lynn Bolles, who opened the door of feminist ethnography to
me and invited my collaboration on several projects.
Many thanks to Claire Moses, who nurtured my feminist scholarship and provided
me opportunities for teaching fellowships.
Special thanks to Mary Corbin Seis, who modeled intellectual rigor and
commitment to diversifying her own curriculum and her field.
Many thanks to the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society board for providing
me leave with pay at a crucial stage in the process, and special thanks for understanding
and support to my long-suffering staff at the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society,
who capably handled things and tried to be understanding during my absences.
Special thanks to the following: to my in-laws and my husband, for providing
child care and TLC as needed; to Julian, who thought this project would never end, and
iv
who may be relieved to finally have a less-distracted mom; to my parents, who were
endlessly supportive in many instrumental ways, especially but not only, in childcare, and
who were careful not to ask too often how the writing was going. Thank you for giving
me roots and wings.
Thanks to my Mennonite women’s group, who provided tea and encouragement
and sometimes advice as I sought to carve out writing time and space. Gratitude to my
friends and colleagues in RC who encouraged me to claim my expertise, and not to be
quiet any longer. Appreciation to Rod and Mary Lou Houser, who offered Herrbrook
retreat cottage for uninterrupted writing in a beautiful setting, and to Ann Stoltzfus
Taylor, for enthusiasm and support of this project.
Thanks to David Eller, formerly of the Young Center at Elizabethtown College,
for a dissertation fellowship and general encouragement, and to Don Kraybill, for
mentoring while I was a Center “fellow.” Gratitude to David Schuyler, Louise Stevenson,
and Alice Drum of Franklin and Marshall College, for mentoring and visiting appoint-
ments, as well as to the F&M library staff for extended research privileges. Thanks also
to Sharon O’Brien, Amy Farrell, and Chuck Barone for collegiality during a visiting
appointment at Dickinson College. And appreciation for early teaching opportunities and
camaraderie to Carole Counihan and Mary Glazier of Millersville University.
And finally, gratitude is due to Evelyn Beck, who helped me bridge the gap from
activism to the academy by reminding me that using one’s academic training to tell
stories of under-represented peoples is social justice work in the academy. Had hers not
been the first class I enrolled in at the university, I doubt I would be here today.
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE: Introduction and Literature Review page 1
Guiding Questions page 2
Gender Analysis and Amish Women page 3
Vignette: Quilt Week, For Love of Fabric page 4
Vignette: “Sell By” Discount Grocery page 7
Gendering Amish Studies page 8
Women’s Absence in Religious Studies page 11
The Absence of Religion in Women’s Studies page 13
Adding Women to Mennonite History page 15
What is Gained by Including Amish Women page 17
Theoretical Framing: Lived Religion page 18
Review of the Literature: Amish Studies page 21
Review of the Literature: Anabaptist Women page 32
CHAPTER TWO: Landscape and Methodology page 53
Vignette: Vegetable Shopping in the Country page 53
Lancaster County as Cultural Landscape page 55
Physical Landscape page 59
Tourism Historically in Lancaster County page 62
Methodology: Ethnography page 64
Women’s Studies & Feminist Ethnography page 69
“Look for Someone Interesting” page 73
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Methodological Issues: Positionality page 75
Overcoming Humility page 82
“Dutch” Language and Recording page 83
Comparison with Other Ethnographies page 85
Ethnographies of Women and Religion page 86
Race-ing the Amish page 89
Whiter than White page 91
Discrimination against the Amish page 92
Amish Ethnicity page 95
Amish Ideas about Race page 98
Against Exceptionalism page 102
CHAPTER THREE: The Performance of Amish Tourism page 104
Vignette: Performing Quilt Sales page 104
Staged Authenticity page 107
Performing Amish Tourism, Living Amish Life page 110
History of Amish Quilts page 114
Home-workers Doing Piecework page 116
The Appropriation of Amish Quilts page 119
CHAPTER FOUR: Kitchen Table Entrepreneurs page 121
Women’s Business Trends in U.S. Society page 121
Examples of Amish Women’s Business page 123
Vignette: The “Amish Wal-Mart” page 124
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