Exploring situated feminisms in agriculture

Abstract

The ecological question is often the most popular matter of concern in agri-food systems. But without neglecting the importance of biodiversity loss and climate crisis, the perspectives of marginalized groups in German agriculture, for example women and queers as well as permanent wage workers and migrant seasonal workers, deserve more attention in the discussion on agricultural futures. Due to the prevalence of patrilinear inheritance in Germany, farmland access through inheritance remains difficult for woman*, queers and people of colour. Due to the prevalence of gendered division of labour, which is the allocation of tasks according to gender and age, women’s work in agriculture is often inadequately compensated. Scholarship on farming women* has provided an extensive empirical basis on the gendered inequalities in agriculture. However, suggested pathways towards a more gender equal agriculture often call on the singe women’s awareness. For example, scholars have problematized the lacking awareness of farming women to stand in for their financial advantage on farm.

The purpose of this article is to centre farming women’s perspectives in German value-added agriculture and explore their situated feminisms. Neustraeter (2015) coined the term “Situated feminism” for women* in rural areas and argues, that feminism in the rural, where everybody knows everybody, operates within complex relationship-networks and will appear differently from the feminist movement in cities.

To understand how farming women* related to feminist values and what issues were important for them when talking about their farming future, I accompanied farming women* in different positions (wage worker, farm founder, in-married spouse, farm successor) on their farms. The mixed methodological approach included participating observation and qualitative interviews. Though working in the greenhouse and in the fields with my empirical interaction partners, I experienced their professional work and was part of farm workflows. In a second step, I interviewed my empirical interaction partners in a one-to-one setting.

Among my empirical interaction partners, a high awareness on gendered inequalities and a rich knowledge on feminist arguments were encountered. Their engagement in farming seemed to be not primarily motivated by economic incentives but by ethics of care. The compatibility of reproductive and productive work, was a topic of high importance to most empirical action partners. The implementation of structures allowing for more gender equality on farm was, according to the empirical interaction partners, not hindered by the awareness level on farm but by misleading incentives in the agricultural governance system (e.g. agricultural social security system).

The critical evaluation of agricultural governance systems, that seem to be built around the stencil of the male white farmers, can be considered a promising pathways towards a more gender equal agriculture in Germany.