Abstract
After decades of being seen as "farm wives," an increasing number of women in American agriculture are actively farming and claiming the "farmer" identity. Previous research has demonstrated that women farmers face unique challenges and that women in the alternative agriculture movement value different elements of agricultural work than their male counterparts. This ethnographic study of 11 women farmers in Iowa's alternative agriculture movement seeks to address how these women understand the relationship between their gender and their work. The majority of the women interviewed feel that their gender influences their general farming perspective, but significantly fewer believe their gender affects their approach to farm sustainability. Interviewees pointed to women's problem-solving skills, concerns with health and family, and intuitive relationships to the earth as ways in which their gender impacts their general farming perspective. Interviewees were more likely to indicate their education, coworkers, or participation in farm organizations as influential in shaping their farm's sustainability. In distinguishing between these two areas, women farmers selectively engage and reproduce culturally gendered traits when positioning themselves within alternative agriculture.
Highlights
Background and IntroductionWomen’s work on farms in the United States was largely undocumented and undervalued until recently (Allen & Sachs, 2007; Sachs, 1983)
Of the 11 women in the study, eight felt that their gender influenced their farming perspective in general. Two women thought their gender influenced their perspective on sustainability, six did not think there was a connection between their gender and sustainability, and three felt ambivalently
Among the women who felt there was a connection between their gender and general farming perspective, the most frequently mentioned feminine stereotypes were the ideas that women are more nurturing, that women are inherently more connected to the earth, and that women are better problem solvers than men
Summary
Background and IntroductionWomen’s work on farms in the United States was largely undocumented and undervalued until recently (Allen & Sachs, 2007; Sachs, 1983). While greater efficiency in men’s fieldwork translated directly into profits, domestic technologies aimed at farm women were primarily labor-saving (Jellison, 1993). The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 structuralized the division of labor by dividing extension services into distinct categories for farm work and housework (Jellison, 1993). This expectation that farm women work inside the home continued throughout the twentieth century, becoming a marker of status for middle-class farm families and influencing public perception of what women on farms do
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