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.

a b s t r a c tThis article deals with how diversification and transformation of farming into tourism may influence the social identity of farmers. Based on a study of 19 farms run by couples engaged with agritourism, it shows how the development of tourism on the farms can be understood in a perspective of repeasantization; and how the couples draw on their farm resources, culture and place to sustain the farm. As hosts offering local food, stories, and various activities, they mediate a strong farm identity. The article also explores how farm identities change through three processes by which the 'new' work of tourism destabilizes identities. One is a shift in the meaning of farmer identity. Another is the gradual change towards a new master identity, and thirdly there is a multiplicity of identities that shift as they relate to various social memberships and settings.

In this article we focus on a group of fathers who use parental leave and how they include care-giving in their construction of masculinity. The fathers shape their own masculine form of care-work differently from the mothers' interaction with the child. Both mothers and fathers, however, take part in the process of reproducing masculinity as the norm by giving masculine care higher status. Care-giving activities are adopted by the hegemonic form of masculinity with its strong connection to paid work.

The emergence of parental leave schemes has been the most important area of expansion for the Norwegian welfare state in the 1990s. Schemes have been extended, and special rights have been granted to fathers. The main underpinning of this strategy is the intention to bolster the fathers' contact with and care for their children. Another objective is to share the benefits and burdens of working life and family life between men and women. In this article we analyse how fathers construct different fatherhood practices through negotiations in relation to the leave schemes and different working conditions.

This article deals with the issue of stability and change in rural masculinity by studying how masculinity changes when work changes. Logging, which used to form a basis for the construction of masculinity in peripheral areas, is in the process of being replaced by new types of work brought about by the commodification of natural and cultural resources. Hunting, fishing and adventures in the wilderness as products are grounded in the traditional competences of rural men, but include elements of service work that go beyond masculine rural knowledge and networks, and introduce features of femininity and urbanity. When urban customers enter places and activities that used to be central for the identification of the rural masculine, rural men seek new places and challenges where 'real rural masculinity' may be expressed.

No abstract

Based on interviews with fathers who stay home alone on parental leave in Norway, this article explores how the masculine identities of employed fathers may be affected by caring. Research on changing masculinities has been concerned with the reworking of men's gender identities into caring ones, and this article aims to add empirical knowledge on ways that parental leave for fathers may contribute to undoing gender. Findings support a development toward ''caring masculinities'' in which values and practices of care are integrated into masculine identities without degradation in masculine status. Self-worth is measured against building care competence and being able to contribute love to their children rather than acquisition of status and resources. Findings also show that fathers tend to interpret caring within conventional masculine activities such as ''hard work'' and outdoor challenges.

No abstract