ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to critique the applicability of categories borrowed from three theoretical perspectives to a comprehensive understanding of women's work on farms. Drawing on a case study of Pennsylvania farm women and girls, it describes the complexity of women's work and illustrates the problems with using categories derived from traditional theoretical perspectives for understanding women's work. The neoclassical economic tradition has analyzed work primarily as labor market activities. The distinction between labor market and non-labor market activities presents problems for analyzing the work of farm women. Both farm women and farm men perform work on the family farm that does not conveniently fit the categories of labor market or non-labor market activities. Daughters or daughters-in-law were present on only twelve of the farms. Daughters contributed to farm work on nine of the twelve farms, although the extent of their involvement varied.
