Farm Women's Groups: Feminist or Farming or Community Groups, or New Social Movements?

The feminist movement is one of social change. The Canadian Farm Women's Network (CFWN) is in many respects a feminist movement and a movement of social change. It has a stated dual mandate of promoting rural community life and sustaining the farm family, while also increasing the recognition of female farm labour, and increasing representation of women on farming boards and in official farming statistics. The CFWN is active at the community and provincial level in most provinces. Promoting rural community life and the farm family calls, on the one hand, for the continued exploitation of women through undervalued voluntary community services and the provision of an invisible unrecognised farm labour force. On the other hand the very existence of a successful, visible farm women's group dispels the traditional silent role of farm women on farming issues and that part of its mandate which calls for increased female representation in farming activities and organisations calls for radical social change in farming circles. The many different aspects of these groups has led to difficulties of correct `categorisation' for sociologists, rural policy makers, funding agencies and feminists. These apparent `contradictions' are not incompatible for farm women however, and it is argued here that greater sensitivity to this is necessary on the part of academics and policy makers so that they assist rather than impede the activities of farm women.