From ‘As Good as Gold’ to ‘GoldudDiggers’: Farming Women and theudSurvival of British Family Farming

摘要

The survival of family farming in British agriculture has long been a topic of interest forudrural researchers and is undergoing something of a current renewal of interest. However,udinsights from feminist approaches remain underutilised despite the crucial role farmingudwomen continue to play in family farming. This article addresses the unity of farm,udfamily and business by interpreting it as a patriarchal way of life. An ethnographicallyudinformed repeated life history methodology is employed to study in detail the familyudmembers of seven farms in rural mid-Wales. Findings show that the recent survival ofudthe family farms investigated has been heavily dependent upon compliance with audpatriarchal ideology that demands that women be ‘as good as gold’. However, it isuddiscovered that a new view of women is emerging in the world of British family farming,udthat of ‘gold digger’. Women entering relationships with farming men are increasinglyudbeing considered a threat to farm survival by virtue of their entitlements if the relationshipudbreaks down. The necessity to study the intricacies of personal relationships inudfamily farming has important implications for most future research into this form ofudagricultural business arrangement.