Jan Rezek, an assistant professor at West Virginia University, conducted a study in 2010 where she interviewed single mothers who were pregnant as teenagers, and the types of support systems they had in Appalachia. She noticed recurring themes that almost all of the women she interviewed brought up, relating to gender roles in the family and more specifically, how men react in these situations of unexpected pregnancies, feeling little obligation to support the women. Though Rezek was not able to make larger generalizations from this study due to her small sample size and specific people she was interviewing, she instead used this study as an opportunity to let Appalachian women be heard and speak freely about their own family situations and used the interviews to tie together themes that could possibly extend outside of these groups.

She found that all of the women relied heavily on a strong network to help them, which she notes consisted almost exclusively of other women related to the mother. “Having a support system and the discussion of gender roles are inseparable in this study” (Rezek, 136), as support systems are essential for the young mothers who need assistance, but since men do not typically play a role in this giving this support, gender must be emphasized when speaking about support systems. Rezek also found that, since support systems and family networks were so important to survive in Appalachia, women actually have an essential role. Similarly to the rest of the USA, Appalachia has social spheres and home spheres, that the men and women dominate, respectively. But since the private domain is so crucial for families in Appalachia who need extra help, making sure that family maintains close and connected relationship is an important role. 

“In this instance, men, who are more involved in the public sphere, increased their influence in society, while the expectation that the woman would be in control of the home allowed women to be empowered in this private sphere. In other words, even if this society is patriarchal as a whole, there are domains where women are expected to make decisions and have control over personal relationships and interactions within the family. The gender expectations in the private sphere were evidenced in this study. Females definitely took the lead role of support in the pregnant adolescents’ life.” – Jan Rezek, 138

In this study, the interviewees spoke a lot about the kin network they relied on being teen parents and needing a lot of assistance. Almost all of this assistance came from mothers and grandmothers, showing the private sphere of support that is led by females. While many studies have focused on pathological features of Appalachian family life, Rezek acknowledges in this passage above that the family and women’s roles within that family are mainstays of community life, even in periods of economic and social adversity.