ABSTRACT

This chapter addresses agriculture and family farming, using this entry point to scrutinise gender relations and thereby disrupt the stereotypical view of rural Australia. The economic prosperity of rural communities is often inextricably linked to farming, and this gives farmers prominence in public affairs and community activities. Arguably there is a contrasting lack of space and services accorded to women and, at least historically, a more limited number of female leaders and opinion shapers. The chapter explains the Australian Women in Agriculture Movement during the 1990s. It focuses on changing gender relations in agricultural production over time; in doing so, it presents a far less harmonious, even conflicted, understanding of 'the rural' than that represented in folkloric imagery. It provides a brief historical summary that clarifies why family farming is the dominant form of agricultural production in Australia and why this is not only based on but also dependent on inequitable gender relations.