A Passionate Affair by Bonita Fee

The daughters never seemed to be consciously attempting to radi.cally alter the gendered position of rural women. However. their sheer will to become independent, well-educated, and economically secure individuals revealed an encouraging change for the next generation of farm women. The interviewees' belief in their power as individuals creates resistance simply by making their progressive actions as rural women, such as attending university, visible in the farming community. Perhaps the greatest form of resistance among the next generation of farming women resides in their determination to control where and how farming will function in their lives. Differing from the past research 1 encountered, all the daughters referred to farming as a 'hobby' they hoped to be able to pursue, as A explained: I was born into this. Farming is in my blood, it's who I am and you can't forget your heritage, I love the community and the land. That's why I always want farming to be a part of my life, but more as a hobby I guess. l have other interests too and so many opportunities that would be a waste not to talce.

From my interviews, it appears that while the traditional social ideologies of farming are still in place, they are no longer solely defining the position of rural women. With parental encouragement, farming daughters are challenging what it means to be a rural woman by exploring a world of owortunities off the farm. Utilizing education as the pathway to an array of occupations, the next generation of farming women has created promising changes for the family farm. They have begun to dismantle the conventional realm of the 'farm wife' and have started building a new farming family where women are secure in their equality and autonomy, while still being proud of their family heritage

Bibliography

Brandth, B. (2002) 'Gender Identity in European Family Farming: A Literature Review',

Sociologia Ruralis, 42 (3), 181-200.

Duggan, C. (1987) 'Farming Women or Farmer's Wives? Women in the Farming Press', In: Curtin, C. et al. (eds.) Gender In Irish Society. Galway: Galway UP. 54-69.

Little, J. and Panelli, R. (2003) 'Gender Research in Rural Geography',Gender, Place and Culture, JO (3), 281-289.

O'Hara, P. (1998) Partners in Production? Women, Farm and Family in Ireland. IS1 ed.

Oxford: Berghahn.

Shortall, S. (I 99 I) 'The Dearth of Data on Irish Farm Wives: A Critical Review of

Literature' , The Economic and Social Review, 22 (4), 3 I 1-332.

Shortall, S. (1992) 'Power Analysis and Farm Wives: An Empirical Study of the Power

Relationships Affecting Women on Irish Farms',Sociologia Ruralis, 32 (4), 431-451.

Shortall, S. (1999) Women and Farming: Property and Power. I SI ed. London: Macmillan.

Shortall, S. (2006) 'Gender and Farming: An Overview', In: Bock, B. and Shortall, S. (eds.) Rural Gender Relations: Issues and Case Studies. Oxfordshire: CAB International. 1-13. SI • ~ttmore, S. (1991) Gender, Work and Family Enterprise. I ed. London: Macm11lan