Masculinisation or Professionalisation of Norwegian Farm Work: A Gender Neutral Division of Work on Norwegian Family Farms?

Abstract

Changes in farm work on Norwegian family farms have, since the 1950s, undergone a masculinisation process. Research has described how farming has become a business controlled by and executed by men, a process that has created ‘the farmer’ as a masculine label of occupation. This paper analyses data from surveys of farming couples in 1995 and 2002. The main objective in the paper is to test whether changes in men and women’s farm work can be described as a transition towards a one- person farm structure in Norway. The main hypothesis put forward is that men and women tend to specialise in either on-farm or off-farm work, and that their allocation of work time depends upon their educational training in agriculture, their interests in farm work, and the capacity of the farm to provide work for both partners. If this is the case we should moderate the hypothesis of masculinisation as a professionalisation among men into one-man farming, and opt for a gender-neutral professionalisation of farm work in Norwegian agriculture, where both men and women tend to specialise in farm work and their partners become their assistants. Our analyses do however support an ongoing masculinisation on farms operated by men; men do most farm work on their farms, and more so in 2002 than in 1995. The pattern is different on farms operated by women. Women are more likely to farm together with an active farming partner. A gender neutral professionalisation of Norwegian farmers was not identified.