The Third Sex: Women Leaders in Australian Agriculture

Abstract

This article uses data from interviews with 20 women involved in decision‐making positions in Australian farm organizations to explore the ways in which women actively create a subject position which locates them as both ‘agricultural leader’ and ‘woman’. This is a subject position one participant describes as ‘a third sex’. In negotiating their outsider status, the participants describe being engaged in a constant process of self‐monitoring and movement between and across different discourses of managerial masculinity and normative femininity. They describe no such difficult identity work being undertaken by the male leaders with whom they work. Based on a range of gender comparisons, the article concludes that women's entry to positions of agricultural leadership does not necessarily suggest that a more inclusive or equitable Australian farming sector is emerging.

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