Gender Identity in European Family Farming: A Literature Review

Abstract

This article pinpoints the ways in which gender identities have been constructed in the literature on gender relations and farming published over the past twenty years. It identifies three significant discourses in the research literature, namely the discourse of the family farm, the discourse of masculinisation and the discourse of detraditionalisation and diversity. The discourse of the family farm is hegemonic in agricultural gender research. It positions men as head of the family farm enterprise; women in the subordinate position of ‘farm wives’ defined by their dependency, their marriage and family related responsibilities. The second discourse accounts for the masculinisation of agriculture. Gender positions are transformed and men and masculinity are loosing power and dominance, while women are pictured as taking action and adjusting themselves to late modern life. The “discourse of detraditionalisation and diversity” focuses on the various positions that contemporary women and men have in relation to the farm.

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