Drudges, Helpers and Team Players: Oral Historical Accounts of Farm Work in Appalachian Kentucky¹

Abstract

Based upon oral history interviews with 49 agriculturalists from Harlan and Letcher Counties, Kentucky, this paper documents the gender division of labor among these farm families, from the 1920s through the present. It also compares 17 wives' and husbands' accounts of farm work. While these data generally conform to patterns documented in previous sociological investigations of gender roles on family farms, a comparison of men's and women's accounts of farm work and life suggests several issues relevant to research on gender and farm families. First, women and men differ in their descriptions of work and in the words they use to describe farm ownership. In addition, men's discussions of the work of their wives, sisters, and daughters vary significantly from their descriptions of the work of their mothers and grandmothers. And, finally, these accounts suggest that there are gender differences in attitudes toward farming. Each of these areas raises questions that merit further empirical investigation.

Farm Women and the Empowerment Potential in Value‐Added Agriculture

“…Moreover, the initial interviewees were also identified by their connections to Cooperative Extension and for this reason these women may constitute a distinctive group. As Scott noted (), their affiliation with Extension may imply a more conventional approach to agricultural production or a more entrepreneurial ethos to agribusiness than women who are not affiliated. Last, given the small sample size it is not possible to determine if these findings represent all women farm operators.…”

‘Moving on’? Exploring the geographies of retirement adjustment amongst farming couples

“…Many studies have similarly noted that men most commonly associate their identity to the productive routines of the farmspace (Burton and Wilson 2006) and Price and Evans (2009: 8 emphasis added) eloquently observe: 'family farming may see men in the home, but not of the home'. Such findings are echoed in other contexts, with Scott's (1996) study in Kentucky noting how the discursive positioning of men as 'farmers' and farm women as 'helpers' begins to reify these gender distinctions. Such understandings are important for how we frame farming retirement.…”

‘Doing it with men’: feminist research practice and patriarchal inheritance practices in Welsh family farming

“…All too often farming women restrict their legal, partnership and monetary rights to ensure farm survival and support the perceived fragility of the male farming identity (see Heather et al 2005 andEvans 2006 as Canadian andUK examples). Farming identities are usually constructed with women inheriting and reproducing an identity as 'helper', whilst men usually adopt the 'farmer' role across the life-course (Price and Evans 2005;Scott 1996). Men tend to benefit in terms of succession, ownership and power in directing the trajectory of the farm.…”