Farm Women and Off-farm Work: A Study of the Queensland Sugar Industry

Abstract

This paper uses data generated from 16 focus groups with 80 women in the Queensland sugar industry to examine farm women's involvement in paid work. To begin, the paper establishes that in the past decade farm women's participation in paid work has increased dramatically. In light of this, two issues about the impact of farm women's participation in paid work are addressed. The first concerns the extent to which women's on-farm activities have been affected by their increased involvement in paid work. The second issue is whether conservative rural values about women's right to undertake paid work have shifted as a result of farm women's movement into the labour market. The data reveal that the increase in farm women's involvement in the labour market has not resulted in any change in women's on-farm work or in community attitudes towards women and paid work. The paper concludes with some suggestions for future research on farm women and paid work.