ABSTRACT
Neighboring has long been the basis of farm communities. While historians and rural sociologists have usually focused on institutions as the social basis of community, it was informal social life that gave institutions in farm communities their meaning and created the fabric of daily living during the first half of this century. This chapter analyzes farm women's participation in farm organizations during the first half of the twentieth century by examining the life histories of two Midwestern farm leaders. Women who were affiliated with the Farm Bureau organized as women and used the separate position to meet their own needs and to push for more representation in the general organizations. The structure of the Farmers' Union, unlike that of the Farm Bureau, integrated women and men into one local organization. Long's farming experiences had both confirmed the importance of women's labor and shown the limits of shared work as a basis for equality.
