Abstract

"In contrast to capitalist production, farming as household production is defined by the unity of property and labour. This unity means that production is organized through kinship and divided by gender and age. In Agrarian Feminism Louise Carbert demonstrates that farm women's opinions about feminism and politics are related to their role in agricultural production." "Farming involves a certain egalitarianism among family members. But the tensions that characterize all families are especially pronounced in farm households, where kinship, sexuality, and finances are closely interrelated. Farm women are not remunerated in wages driven by market forces, and their working conditions are not regulated through an employment contract subject to legislated labour codes. Instead, the terms of farm women's employment are established through marriage or cohabitation. The unity of work and family relations may account for the marked caution of farm women's feminist demands amid calls to save the family farm." "Farm women's proven track-record at mobilizing political participation can also instruct contemporary attempts to revitalize a sense of community. Their overriding enthusiasm for community-based service work emerges as both a collective strategy for fulfilling the larger needs of rural society and an individual strategy for personal happiness; it is simultaneously agrarian and feminist." "In Agrarian Feminism a historical review of farm women's organizations in English Canada is combined with a recent survey asking Ontario farm women for their opinions on politics, feminism, and morality."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved.