Contemporary Feminist Analysis of Australian Farm Women in the Context of Climate Changes

Margaret Alston, Josephine Clarke, Kerri Whittenbury

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Climate changes are reshaping agricultural production and food security across the globe (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2014b), leading to increased uncertainty (Torquebiau et al., 2015), changing production processes (Bryant et al., 2016), greater levels of outmigration from rural areas for alterna-tive income (Alston, 2015), and a reshaped agricultural workforce (Preibisch &Grez, 2010). As these impacts take hold, significant gendered workforce realignments are underway in agricultural production units. One result evident across the world is that women are having a much greater role in food production and now comprise 43% of the global agricultural workforce (Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO], 2013; World Bank, 2012; World Bank, 2017), over 50%in many Asian nations, and over 40% in southern Africa (FAO, 2010; World Bank, 2017). Nonetheless, there is far less documented information on women’s contribution to agriculture in developed countries and almost no systematic data collection in Australia. This is despite the fact that 99% of the 134,000 Australian farms are run as family farms (National Farmers’ Federation, 2012), confirming that Australian agriculture is highly dependent on the labour flexibility female and male family members provide.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationGender and the Social Dimensions of Climate Change:
Subtitle of host publicationRural and Resource Contexts of the Global North
EditorsAmber J. Fletcher, Maureen G. Reed
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherRoutledge, Taylor & Francis
Chapter7
Pages172-191
Number of pages20
ISBN (Electronic)9781000645217
ISBN (Print)9780367544188 , 9781032316857
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Publication series

NameRoutledge Studies in Gender and Environments
PublisherRoutledge

Keywords

  • farming women
  • women in agriculture
  • climate changes
  • feminist analysis
  • food production

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