Status Variation on Family Farms: Effects of Crop, Machinery, and Off‐farm Work

Abstract Uncertainties facing farm enterprises place a premium on flexibility and adaptability in the work force. A study of 695 North Carolina farm couples is used to examine the extent to which 12 tasks on a farm are shared among family members and hired workers. Using husband alone as the norm, this pattern is contrasted with husband and son, husband and wife, husband and hired help, and husband and other statuses. Production, support, and household tasks are distinguished. Type of crop and amount of machinery used make a difference to status variation in production tasks, requiring more sharing on the part of the husband, but have less impact on support and household tasks. The latter are affected more by whether the husband or wife works off the farm. Despite status variation, farm work remains highly gendered; if the husband shares production work, it is with his son or a hired worker. 1994 Rural Sociological Society

Duke Scholars

Author John Wilson Sociology