Gender Roles in The Birchbark House

I found it very interesting towards the end of the book when Erdrich mentions that the men are gossiping and the women are talking. “The work came first, but then lengthening light in the afternoons kept the children at play outside and kept the aunts talking, the men gossiping, the grandmas reminiscing about their own playing days as small children when they roamed the sugar camps” (208). I thought the use of the word “gossip” to describe the men was telling. To me, gossiping is something that women do. You picture little old ladies sitting at the local diner talking over coffee about who is doing what with whom. I don’t think of men gossiping. Erdrich’s use of words paints a picture that may or may not be accurate. She mentions in the book earlier about how the men talk about ceremonies and treaties, but this use of the word “gossip” puts a new twist on what the conversations are actually about. Are the men talking about others as the word “gossip” implies, or are they merely talking about ceremonies? It blurs the line between genders. Mostly, women gossip but this use of the word suggests that it was commonplace for the Ojibwe men to gossip as well.