Abstract
Much international research haspointed out that farm women in a Westernagricultural context have not identified withthe ideas and politics of feminism. This issuehas troubled feminist scholars in the field,since much research has documented thesubordinate position of farm women. However,concerning the question of why farm women have notadopted feminism, assumptions ofprogress can be read: gender equality and emancipationof women will eventually take place once theagricultural sector has reached a higher stageof development; concerning universalism: thereexists a common women's identity and experienceof male oppression that forms the basis foridentity politics. The question may beidentified as a researcher question embeddedwithin the assumptions of the feminist researchcommunity, which struggles with establishing asubject-subject relationship between theresearcher and the researched. As such, it is thebasis for the production of partial, situatedknowledge and must be recognized as such.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, J. (1993). “Resistance to 'modernity': Southern Illinois farm women and the cult of domesticity.” American Ethnologist 20(1): 89–113.
Almås, R., K. Vik, and J. Ødegård (1983). Women in Rural Norway. SFB-paper 1/83. Trondheim: Centre for Rural Research.
Alston, M. (1995). Women on the Land, the Hidden Heart of Australia. Kensington: University of New South Wales Press.
Barrett, M. (1992). “Words and things: Materialism and method in contemporary feminist analysis.” In M. Barrett and A. Phillips (eds.), Destabilising Theory. Contemporary Feminist Debates. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Beck, U. (1992). Reflexive Modernity. London: Sage.
Beck, U. and E. Beck-Gernsheim (1995). The Normal Chaos of Love. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bolsø, A., B. Brandth, and M. S. Haugen (1993). “Kvinneforskningen ved Senter for bygdeforskning. Et tilbakeblikk.” In R. Almås, B. Brandth, and M. S. Haugen (eds.), Bygdepolitikk. SFB-report no. 6/96. Trondheim: Centre for Rural Research.
Bordo, S. (1990). “Feminism, postmodernism, and genderscepticism.” In N. Frazer and L. J. Nicholson (eds.), Feminism/Postmodernism. New York: Routledge.
Brandth, B. (1994). “Changing femininity. The social construction of women farmers in Norway.” Sociologia Ruralis 34(2/3): 127–149.
Brandth, B. and M. S. Haugen (1997). “Rural women, feminism and the politics of identity.” Sociologia Ruralis 37(2/3): 325–344.
Brandth, B. and M. S. Haugen (1998). “Breaking into a masculine discourse. Women and farm forestry.” Sociologia Ruralis 38(3): 427–442.
Brandth, B. and B. Verstad (eds.) (1993). Kvinneliv i landbruket. Oslo: Landbruksforlaget.
Brooks, A. (1997). Postfeminisms. Feminism, Cultural Theory and Cultural Forms. London: Routledge.
Campbell, H. and M. Bell (2000). “The question of rural masculinities.” Rural Sociology 65(4): 532–546.
Delphy, C. and D. Leonard (1992). Familiar Exploitation: A New Analysis of Marriage in Contemporary Societies. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Djurfeldt, G. (1999). “Essentially non-peasant? Some critical comments on post-modernist discourse on the peasantry.” Sociologia Ruralis39(2): 262–270.
Giddens, A. (1990). The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Politiy Press.
Grace, M. and J. Lennie (1998). “Constructing and reconstructing rural women in Australia: The politics of change, diversity and identity.” Sociologia Ruralis 38(3): 351–370.
Grant, J. (1993). Fundamental feminism. Contesting the Core Concepts of Feminist Theory. New York: Routledge.
Greenwood, D. J. and M. Levin (1998). Introduction to Action Research. Social Research for Social Change. London: Sage.
Fink, D. (1992). Agrarian Women. Wives and Mothers in Rural Nebraska, 1880-1940. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
Haraway, D. J. (1991a). “Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of the partial perspective.” In D. J. Haraway (ed.), Simians, Cyborgs, and Women. The Reinvention of Nature. London: Free Association Books.
Haraway, D. J. (1991b). “Reading Buchi Emecheta: Contests for 'women's experience' in women's studies.” In D. J. Haraway (ed.), Simians, Cyborgs, and Women. The Reinvention of Nature. London: Free Association Books.
Harding, S. (1986). The Science Question in Feminism. Oxford: Open University Press.
Harding, S. (1993). “Reinventing ourselves as other: More new agents of history and knowledge.” In L. Kauffman (ed.), American Feminist Thought at the Century's End - a Reader. Oxford: Blackwell.
Haugen, M. S. (1990). “Female Farmers in Norwegian Agriculture.” Sociologia Ruralis 30(2).
Haugen, M. S. (1998). Women Farmers in Norway. Dr.polit. thesis, Trondheim: The Norwegian University of Technology and Science.
Hooks, B. (1984). Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. Boston: South End Press.
Latour, B. (1993). We Have Never Been Modern. London: Harvester/Wheatsheaf.
Liepins, R. (1998). “Fields of action: Australian women's agricultural activism in the 1990s.” Rural Sociology 63(1): 128–156.
Liljewall, B. (2000). “Tradition som moderniserande kraft. Alternativa mönster för historisk förändring.” RIG Kulturhistorisk Tidsskrift (3): 129–149.
Little, J. and P. Austin (1996). “Women and the rural idyll.” Journal of Rural Studies12(2): 101–111.
Longino, H. E. (1990). Science as Social Knowledge. Values and Objectivity in Scientific Inquiry. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Marshall, B. L. (1994). Engendering Modernity. Feminism, Social Theory and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Maffesoli, M. (1995). The Time of the Tribes: The Decline of Individualism in Mass Societies. London: Sage.
Nicholson, L. (1990). “Introduction.” In L. Nicholson (ed.), Feminism/Postmodernism. New York: Routledge.
O'Hara, P. (1994). “Out of the shadows. Women on family farms and their contribution to agriculture and rural development.” In M. van der Burg and M. Endeveld (eds.), Women on Family Farms. Gender Research, EC Policies and New Perspectives. Wageningen: Circle for Rural European Studies.
O'Hara, P. (1998). Partners in Production? Women, Farm and Family in Ireland. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Poiner, G. (1996). Feminism and country women. Paper presented at the 6th International Congress on Women, Adelaide, Australia.
Sachs, C. (1983). The Invisible Farmers: Women in Agricultural Production. Totawa, New Jersey: Rowan and Allanheld.
Sachs, C. (1996). Gendered Fields. Rural Women, Agriculture, and Environment. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
Shortall, S. (1992). “Power analysis of farm wives.” Sociologia Ruralis 32(4): 431–451.
Shortall, S. (1994). “Farmwomen's groups: Feminist or farming or community groups, or new social movements?” Industrial and Labor Relations Review28(1): 279–291.
Shortall, S. (1999). Women and Farming. Property and Power. Houndsmill: Macmillan.
Skeggs, B. (1997). Formations of Class and Gender. London: Sage.
Smith, D. (1987). The Everyday World as a Problematic. Oxford: Open University Press.
Smith, D. (1990). The Conceptual Practices of Power: A Feminist Sociology of Knowledge. London: Routledge.
Tovey, H. (1999). The European Countryside in Transition. Paper to the Rustica Nova Conference, Somerniemi, Finland.
Therborn, G. (1995). European Modernity and Beyond. The Trajectory of European Societies 1945-2000. London: Sage.
van der Burg, M. and M. Endeveld (eds.) (1994). Women on Family Farms. Gender Research, EC Policies and New Perspectives. Wageningen: Circle for Rural European Studies.
Walby, S. (1992). “Post-post-modernism. Theorizing social complexity.” In M. Barrett and A. Phillips (eds.), Destabilising Theory: Contemporary Feminist Debates. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Whatmore, S. (1991). Farming Women: Gender, Work and Family Enterprise. London: MacMillan.
Whatmore, S., T. Marsden, and P. Lowe (eds.) (1994). Gender and Rurality. London: David Fulton Publishers.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Brandth, B. On the relationship between feminism and farm women. Agriculture and Human Values 19, 107–117 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016011527245
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016011527245