Getting Into It: Farm Roles and Careers of New Zealand Women1

Abstract

Abstract Researchers have challenged the stereotype that farm women's roles and influence are primarily domestic by documenting the number of women's on‐farm roles. This study extends this approach by considering the interrelationships among women's roles and influence in reproductive and productive domains. A qualitative research method was used to investigate women's ways of describing the range of their on‐farm roles and the process of entry into and exit from those roles. Participants were farm women from south island, New Zealand. Findings showed women's wide range of involvement in household and farm labor, management, and ownership of their farms. Levels of involvement differed throughout the three phases of their farm careers: making a place, getting into it, retirement. Hypotheses were developed from the findings for further delineation of the range of women's on‐farm involvement and barriers and opportunities to the development of women's on‐farm careers.