These are frank findings of a new University of New England (UNE) study that examines the experiences of women establishing small-scale, alternative operations in Australia and the Netherlands. Women who are increasingly engaged in local food production but, by virtue of their gender, don’t benefit from intergenerational farm succession.
“Women excluded from mainstream agriculture find the lower cost of entry to sustainable agriculture and its alignment with their social and environmental values very attractive,” said lead researcher Dr Lucie Newsome, from UNE’s Business School. “They discover great satisfaction in farming, but we found they need to jump through hoops to access essential goods and services.”
In farming communities increasingly characterised by large properties, intensive production, mechanisation and biochemical inputs, women farming sustainably risk being rendered “invisible, gendered as the farmer’s wife and discredited due to their farming practices”. The study found that alternative agriculture can be dismissed as “irrational, ideological and feminine”.
And this kind of discrimination sometimes led women farmers to behave according to established “rural scripts”.
“They felt the need to perform in a masculine way to be recognised as a farmer and not ignored or disrespected when buying equipment or supplies, selling their produce or interacting with neighbours,” Dr Newsome said. “Even communicating like men – including being decisive and direct – helped to build trust and legitimacy.”
One Australian woman interviewed said she felt conflicted by this but lowered her voice and slowed her movements to make conversing with men more comfortable for them. Others sought to highlight the viability of their business models in conversation with men, to appeal to their emphasis on financial returns.
Interestingly, women farmers from the Netherlands were – overall – less willing to perform. This is because they are less geographically isolated and more connected to the sustainable agriculture movement.
The good news is that these committed, passionate women producers do not generally internalise the discrimination they encounter.
“They maintain their values, remain realistic and resourceful,” Dr Newsome said. “These behaviours are just a way for them to navigate the gendered territory of farming and access the resources they need.”
And, over time, rural communities came to respect their decision to opt in to rural life and help build social cohesion.
“I hope our research encourages a new appreciation of the hard work and positive contributions of women sustainable farmers, many of whom have left urban professions to grow food for us,” said Dr Newsome. “That it reminds us there can be different types of farmers, including those who go against the grain.”
The report was co-authored by Ellyse Fenton, from UNE, and Tasch Arndt from the University of Amsterdam.
