ABSTRACT

Such a fair representation of the female contribution to agrarian livelihood is a recent phenomenon in historical writing about American farming. For most of its past, agriculture has been depicted as a triumph or a tragedy of productivity, dependent on male physical labour aided and abetted by machine technology, mercantile intermediaries, the idiosyncrasies of the weather and natural hazards. 3 Not for nothing did Carolyn Sachs entitle her 1983 study of American farm women, The Invisible Farmers.4 Yet she, like the many other recent writers who have contributed to recovering a female presence on the farm, aimed to do more than discuss women's reproductive work. They also wanted to challenge the gendered division of labour which assigned women to a supportive role in what has been a major sector in the national economy.