ABSTRACT
Gwen2 completed her education by studying domestic science: ‘I went to a domestic art school, of all things. They taught me to make an apple turnover, wash a man’s sock and to thoroughly go through a very strict routine for washing floors. That was going to set me up for life.’ She married and set up home on a dairy farm with her husband. Following his death many years later she took over the farm and encountered the full impact of gender assumptions in her industry: ‘The agents would come to the door and ask for “the boss”. They didn’t expect me to be calling the shots.’ Throughout her farming life Gwen became increasingly aware of the gendered nature of agriculture. Thus in the 1980s she became involved with local women’s farm support and skills courses. These activities led to the establishment of the First Victorian Women on Farms Gathering which has since grown as a model of annual women’s conferences held for farm (and other rural) women in many states across Australia. Gwen has attended a number of these Gatherings and subsequently participated in the national group Australian Women in Agriculture (AWIA) and the inaugural Women in Agriculture International Conference.
