Gender in Maria Concepcion

So, today in my Shakespeare class, we were talking about how gender can be considered a performance (I believe we have had a similar discussion in this class as well).  I think this notion of gender as a performance could be applied to Maria Concepcion.  In many ways she is just performing her gender as she is cooking for her husband and taking care of the baby.  These are just things that women are expected to do.  It is interesting how Maria Concepcion is introduced.  This is why I first wanted to read the story (way back a couple months ago), because I was so interested in how we keep just getting little tidbits of information.  She is described as standing up straight and lugging fowls to clean and sell to the market.  This strikes me as kind of a masculine thing to do because she has to slit their necks, and it shows that she is the one who is supporting (or helping to support) her and her husband.  After that, she switches into the more "feminine" role of taking dinner to Juan and talking to the neighbors.  

Also, I think there may be some unexplored symbolism with honey.  Most analyses that I could make would be fairly obvious, but I especially think it is interesting that Maria Concepcion is buying some of Maria's honey when she first sees Juan with Maria Rosa.