The Broad and Narrow: Case Studies and International Perspectives on Farm Women’s Research

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to compare and contrast the role women play in agriculture in Northern Ireland and Australia. Using research carried out in both Australia and Northern Ireland, this article demonstrates how case studies in these two diverse regions illustrate many similarities in the situation of farm women. Mindful of the differences in the structure of agriculture and the approach to gender equality strategies in both places, the central question is whether the case study approach allows us to question the more macro sociological processes that contribute to the similarity in the situation of women on farms. It is concluded that at least a partial explanation rests with the ownership of property and the patrilineal line of inheritance common to both places. While both Australia and Northern Ireland pursue gender equality strategies of one sort or another, they also continue to protect individual private property rights that are central to the social custom of patrilineal land transfer. This land transfer also embodies the transfer of social and gender relationships within the family across generations. Hence it is argued that when case studies are used in a comparative context they allow the identification of macro social processes of pertinence beyond the confines of any individual case study area.