Doctoral Dissertation Research: (In)visible Work: Analyzing Labor Performed in Agricultural Markets

Syracuse University, Syracuse NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project studies the impact of market reforms on household relations and women's work in agriculture. The project asks: how does economic change shape gendered institutions such as the household and related labor markets? A central problem is that a significant portion of agricultural work is not measured appropriately, and thus unrecorded in official statistics. Four research questions guide this project: (a) how are official measures of women's work constructed? (b) what is the impact of economic change in agriculture at the local level upon one measure of women's work? (c) what role does women's unpaid work play in the explanation of the links between economic change in agriculture and paid work? (d) how does economic change affect intrahousehold power relations and gender norms? This project examines the ways in which regulatory changes in agricultural policy affect women's work in agricultural production and marketing at interconnected levels of analysis: national, local, and household. At each level, the project seeks to show how women's paid and unpaid work is officially and unofficially defined in agricultural communities, and how this work is redefined under economic change. The findings from this project will contribute to a broader understanding of a) women's work--paid and unpaid activities undertaken within and beyond the household and b) how large-scale policy decisions translate into decisions made at the family and individual level. These findings will help generate recommendations on how households' and women's lives in agricultural areas may be improved by change in formal policies including those focused on contract farming, deregulation of sales, and privatization of markets. This project will examine the processes by which women's work, particularly work in agricultural contexts, is rendered visible or invisible in the market economy. The project will use a convergent mixed methods research framework to study the relationship between economic change and gendered institutions like the household and related labor markets. Within this framework, quantitative data from censuses and surveys and qualitative data from primary sources will be collected in the same phase of data production; both strands of data will then be analysed independently and merged at the stage of interpretation of results. To collect primary data, in-depth semi-structured interviews will be conducted with 60 women engaged in farm work and also associated with farmer producer companies, along with participant observation on farms and at agricultural markets around a larger urban area. Findings from the project will inform sociological theories regarding gender in agricultural work, economic change, and household gender relations. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.