Gender and the Family Labor System: Defining Work in the Rural Midwest

Household and farm transitions in environmental context

“…This result is surprising because, while previous work in historical US settings and the contemporary developing world finds a strong role for women and children, and girls in particular (Cain 1977; Caldwell 2005; Effland 2005; Flora 1985; Flora and Stitz 1988; Hunter and Riney-Kehrber 2002; Neth 1994; Riney-Kehrberg 2001; Sylvester 2001b; VanWey et al 2007), the work of women and young children was undervalued and sons were strongly preferred as successors (Beale 1979; Gjerde and McCants 1999; Leonard and Gutmann 2006; Lobao and Meyer 2001; Rosenfeld 1985; Sachs 1983; Salamon 1992). The value of women’s production was nearly half the net income of farms in the mid-1930s (Monroe 1940), but women were generally not involved in activities that produced field crops, and the values of women’s production was earmarked for consumption and maintenance, while men’s was earmarked for farm expenses and land acquisition (Fink 1987).…”

“…Moreover, agricultural work and rewards tend to be age and gender specific. The work of women and children is crucial to farm enterprises, but specific strategies might depend on the balance of sons and daughters due to different expectations related to the potential for immediate or deferred intergenerational transfer of accumulated capital (Adams 1994; Fink 1987; Flora 1985; Flora and Stitz 1988; Hunter and Riney-Kehrber 2002; Kim and Zepeda 2004; Kohl and Bennett 1982; Leonard and Gutmann 2006; Neth 1994, 1995; Osterud 1991; Potter and Lobley 1992). Similarly, resident hired labor increases household size, but these household members do not fit into succession plans, except as a means to realize them (Atack et al 2002; Craig 1991).…”

The political economy of agriculture in Southern Africa

“…4. This was also the case for women in the United States prior to the industrialization of the poultry industry prior to World War II (Neth 1994;Sachs 1996). 5.…”