Three Visions of Masculine Success on American Farms

Anthropological, sociological, historical, and psychological approaches are combined to explore three divergent orientations to masculine success among American farmers. With a focus on the moral economy of the family, we link dimensions of work, livelihood, and marital partnership to the emotional consequences of women’s off-farm work. We contrast agrarian and industrial ideals found in Georgia, Iowa, and Illinois and connect their emergence to the transformation of the American economy over the last 100 years. Psychological and survey data from an Iowa study show some preliminary support for the Georgia findings that a more industrial notion of farmers’masculinity, emphasizing income and lifestyle and an expectation that a man will be the sole breadwinner of the family, confers a heavier emotional burden in a time of financial crisis. The Midwestern sustainable agriculture movement has given rise to a “third wave” of masculinity, a less competitive and individualistic ideology, emerging from a more global ecological awareness.

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