Women, work and the evolution of agriculture

In this article, the author differentiates the key elements in the development of agricultural production in Quebec and Canada in the last four decades (that is, the modernization of agriculture and the development of capitalist relations of production) and then tests the relative strength of each for producing change in women's participation level. Data were collected during a year of fieldwork in a small Quebec parish and consist of semi-structured interviews with the adult members of 63 randomly selected farm families. The findings indicate that neither the development of capitalist agriculture nor the adoption of modern methods have an independent effect on women's contribution. It is the interaction effect between the two that produces the greatest variation in the type and amount of work women devote to farming.