Drudges, helpers and team players: oral historical accounts of farm work in Appalachian Kentucky
1996
Scott, S.L.
Based upon oral history interviews with 49 agriculturalists from Harlan and Letcher Counties, Kentucky, this paper documents the gender division of labor among these farm families, from the 1920s through the present. It also compares 17 wives' and husbands' accounts of farm work. While these data generally conform to patterns documented in previous sociological investigations of gender roles on family farms, a comparison of men's and women's accounts of farm work and life suggests several issues relevant to research on gender and farm families. First, women and men differ in their descriptions of work and in the words they use to describe farm ownership. In addition, men's discussions of the work of their wives, sisters, and daughters vary significantly from their descriptions of the work of their mothers and grandmothers. And, finally, these accounts suggest that there are gender differences in attitudes toward farming. Each of these areas raises questions that merit further empirical investigation.
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