Equality for Women in Agriculture: A Transatlantic exploration of Island Communities

Abstract

History presents agriculture as a traditional male occupation, associated with physically demanding labour, even though women have always played an essential role in the farming industry (Alston, 1995; Shortall et al, 2017; Abrams, 2005; Dunne et al, 2021). Although there has been an increased awareness of the role of women, which will be discussed throughout this thesis, there remains a consistent and global difference between men and women in the agriculture industry, in terms of ownership and management. This thesis will first briefly examine the existing literature regarding the relationship between gender and agriculture at an international level in the Global North and will then narrow down to Scotland and Canada, highlighting both the similarities and differences between the two territories. The focus will then shift to specifically the experiences of women in agriculture in the Scottish and Atlantic Canadian Islands, with the presentation of the results of 33 semi-structured interviews carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic with men and women who are involved in the agriculture industry. These results are split into the past, present and future of women in the agriculture industry, of the barriers they had, they have and continue to face due to their gender. Within these sections the notion of ‘islands’ is considered, with some examples of the different theoretical and methodological perspectives within island studies, including the very recent ‘island feminisms’ perspective which is used as the theoretical framework for this thesis. Furthermore, reflections on the challenges of conducting research in peripheral rural island areas, whilst being a researcher residing in a remote island will be discussed. Similarities and differences between the Scottish and Atlantic Canadian Islands case studies are outlined throughout the results chapters, with each concluding with an overall summary of these socio-cultural factors. There were several similar barriers experienced by women in the islands across the two countries. These included childcare, lack of female leadership in agriculture organisations, women still being seen as only women and the unconscious bias of those working in the agriculture industry, such as salespeople. Although some argued about the existence of the barriers and would point to examples of women leaders, this followed the exceptional women ideology, that women are not seen as the norm and instead this ideology is used to justify patriarchal structures on the islands. These barriers transcend both space and time, as they are evident to have existed in the past, present, and future. Even though Scotland and Canada are exception of countries which have invested heavily into the eradication of gender inequality in the agriculture industry, there remains significant issues. The most evident differences between the two territories include the land tenure systems, which vary even between the Canadian Islands themselves. A further unexpected finding in the Scottish Islands was the unconscious bias of women trainers, who used the term ‘normal’ to describe mostly male training groups and used the excuse of there not being enough women in the island to justify their apprehension of women only training and organisations. Yet were surprised when a huge turnout of women attended. A significant contribution of this thesis is both theoretically and empirically to the island feminism approach. It has demonstrated the need to study island women in agriculture in their own terms, as the issues and barriers they experience are more pronounced due to the combination of the geographical isolation of islands and the patriarchal social structures that are intensified in island settings. This is due to typically lower populations, tight knit communities, and the need to maintain good relationships between neighbours in order to prosper in a challenging economic and physical landscape on islands. Future research should include a comparative analysis of island and mainland women in agriculture. Although there is existing work of both communities, such as this thesis, research that directly compares them would further strengthen the island feminism theoretical approach and demonstrate further the different lived experiences of island women compared to their mainland counterparts. The overall conclusion of this thesis is that although there has been some progress in this field, full gender equality has not been reached due to engrained cultural norms and practices, such as patrilineal inheritance patterns in the agriculture industry.