The author examines the construction of nature and gendered subjectivities occurring in environmental activism. The paper follows recent thinking in rural geography in attending to the discourses and agency of activists. Such an approach enables a reading of Australian agricultural women's environmental activism. Initially it is shown how the ‘women in agriculture’ movement engages with the range of discourses that contextualise the agri-environmental arena. This is then followed by a critical reading of the gendered subjectivities the movement employed. No specific environmental issues galvanised the movement. Instead, it is argued, particular constructions of nature and women's place in rural space are assembled as activists canvassed their broad environmental concerns.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ABARE, 1995Women on Farms: A Survey of Women on Australian Broadacre and Dairy Farmers, 1993–1994Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, GPO Box 1563, Canberra 2601
2.
AgarwalB, 1991, “Engendering the environmental debate: Lessons from the Indian subcontinent”, monograph 8, CASID Distinguished Speakers Series, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
3.
AlexanderH, 1995, “Sustainable agriculture—myth or maybe?”, in Farming for our Future: Post-conference Proceedings Eds Women in Agriculture 1994 International Conference Committee; copy available from Dr Liepins, pp 117–120
4.
AlstonM, 1994, “Women and the rural crisis”, in Country Women at the Crossroads: Perspectives on the Lives of Rural Australian Women in the 1990s Eds FranklinMShortLMTeatherEK, (University of New England Press, Armidale) pp 24–30
5.
AlstonM, 1995Women on the Land: The Hidden Heart of Rural Australia (University of New South Wales Press, Sydney)
6.
AndersonD, 1993, “The gender division of domestic household labour on family farms”, unpublished masters thesis, Department of Geography, University of Otago, Dunedin
Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1986Environmental Issues and Usage of National Parks ABS Catalogue 4115.0 (Australian Government Printing Service, Canberra)
9.
BeilinR, 1995, “The construction of woman in Landcare: Does it make a difference?”Rural Society520–29
10.
BiehlJ, 1991Rethinking Ecofeminist Politics (South End Press, Boston, MA)
11.
BouquetM, 1984, “Women's work in rural south-west England”, in Family and Work in Rural Societies: Perspectives on Non-wage Labour Ed. LongN, (Tavistock, London) pp 142–159
12.
BraidottiRCharkiewiczEHauslerSWieringaS, 1994Women, the Environment and Sustainable Development: Towards a Theoretical Synthesis (Zed Press, London)
13.
BurmanEParkerI, 1993, “Introduction—discourse analysis: The turn to the text”, in Discourse Analytic Research: Repertories and Readings of Texts in Action Eds BurmanEParkerI, (Routledge, London) pp 1–13
14.
CampbellA, 1992, “Farm and catchment planning: Tools for sustainability?”, in Agriculture, Environment and Society: Contemporary Issues for Australia Eds LawrenceGVanclayFFurzeB, (Macmillan, South Melbourne) pp 224–232
15.
ChristCP, 1991, “Why women need the goddess, phenomenological, psychological and political reflections”, in A Reader in Feminist Knowledge Ed. GunewS, (Routledge, London) pp 290–302
16.
ClaridgeCL, 1993, “Women and ecological sustainability: Putting Australia in the picture”, unpublished masters thesis, Department of Agriculture, University of Queensland, Brisbane
17.
ClaridgeCLChamalaS, 1995, “Role of women in Australian agriculture and natural resource management: Issues of empowerment and leadership”, in Women in Agriculture: Perspectives, Issues and Experiences Ed. SamantaR K, (MD Publications, New Delhi) pp 25–66
18.
ClokeP, 1996, “Looking through European eyes? A re-evaluation of agricultural deregulation in New Zealand”Sociologia Ruralis36305–330
19.
CocklinC, 1995, “Agriculture, society and environment: Discourses on sustainability”International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology2240–256
20.
CurtisADavidsonPMcGowanC, 1994“Women's participation and experience of Landcare in north-east Victoria”, report 4, Johnstone Centre of Parks, Recreation and Heritage, Charles Sturt University, Albury
21.
DaviesB, 1991, “The concept of agency: A feminist poststructuralist analysis”Social Analysis3042–53
22.
DempseyK, 1992A Man's Town: Inequality Between Women and Men in Rural Australia (Oxford University Press, Melbourne)
23.
EwingS, 1995, “‘Small is beautiful’: The place of the case study in Landcare evaluation”Rural Society538–43
24.
FoucaultM, 1980, “Two lectures”, in Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972–1977 Ed. GordonC, (Pantheon, New York) p 78–108
25.
GandyM, 1996, “Crumbling land: The postmodernity debate and the analysis of environmental problems”Progress in Human Geography2023–40
26.
GassonR, 1980, “Roles of farm women in England”Sociologia Ruralis2165–181
27.
Gibson-GrahamJK, 1995, “Beyond capitalism and patriarchy: Reflections on political subjectivity”, in Transitions: New Australian Feminisms Eds CaineBPringleR, (Allen and Unwin, Sydney) pp 172–183
28.
HarveyD, 1996Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference (Blackwell, Winchester, MA)
29.
HoganE, 1994, “Making women visible: Reflections on work with women in agriculture in Victoria”, in Country Women at the Crossroads: Perspectives on the Lives of Rural Australian Women in the 1990s Eds FranklinMShortLMTeatherEK, (University of New England Press, Armidale, NE) pp 31–37
30.
HughesA, 1997, “Rurality and ‘cultures of womanhood’: Domestic identities and moral order in village life”, in Contested Countryside Cultures: Otherness, Marginalisation and Rurality Eds ClokePLittleJ, (Routledge, London) pp 123–137
31.
IbaM, 1995, “How do we protect our land and human resources when economic reality demands increasingly higher productivity? Network for safe and secure food and environment”, in Farming for our Future: Post-conference Proceedings Eds Women in Agriculture 1994 International Conference Committee; copy available from Dr Liepins, pp 38–44
32.
JacksonC, 1993, “Women/nature or gender/history? A critique of ecofeminist ‘development’”Journal of Peasant Studies20389–418
33.
KellyK, 1995, “How do we protect our land and human resources when economic reality demands increasingly higher production?”, in Farming for our Future: Post-conference Proceedings Eds Women in Agriculture 1994 International Conference Committee; copy available from Dr Liepins, pp 85–89
34.
KingY, 1989, “The ecology of feminism and the feminism of ecology”, in Healing the Wounds: The Promise of Ecofeminism Ed. PlantJ, (New Society Publishers, Philadelphia, PA) p 18–28
35.
LeckieGJ, 1993, “Female farmers in Canada and the gender relations of a restructuring agricultural system”The Canadian Geographer37212–230
36.
LiepinsR, 1995, “‘Women in agriculture’: Advocates for a gendered sustainable agriculture”Australian Geographer26118–126
37.
LiepinsR, 1996aWomen in Agriculture: A Geography of Australian Agricultural Activism unpublished PhD thesis, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Melbourne, Melbourne
38.
LiepinsR, 1996b, “Reading agricultural power: Media as sites and processes in the construction of meaning”New Zealand Geographer523–10
39.
LittleJ, 1997, “Employment marginality and women's self-identity”, in Contested Countryside Cultures: Otherness, Marginalisation and Rurality Eds ClokePLittleJ, (Routledge, London) pp 138–157
40.
LittleJAustinP, 1996, “Women and the rural idyll”Journal of Rural Studies12101–111
41.
LockieS, 1994, “Landcare in the balance: Wherefore art thou Landcareman?”Rural Society448–49
42.
LockieS, 1995a, “Beyond a ‘good thing’: Political interests and the meaning of Landcare”Rural Society53–12
43.
LockieS, 1995b, “Rural gender relations and Landcare”, in With a Rural Focus Ed. VanclayF, (Centre for Rural Social Research, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga) pp 75–88
44.
LockieS, 1996, “Farming practice, capital and Landcare: Subsumption and control”, in Social Change in Rural Australia Eds LawrenceGLyonsKMomtazS, (Central Queensland University Press, Rockhampton) pp 25–27
45.
McCaskillM, 1995, “Ethical, social and marketing issues: Why women in agriculture are their own worst enemies”, in Farming for our Future: Post-conference Proceedings Eds Women in Agriculture 1994 International Conference Committee; copy available from Dr Liepins
46.
McDowellL, 1996, “Spatializing feminism: Geographic perspectives”, in Bodyspace: Destabilizing Geographies of Gender and Sexuality Ed. DuncanN, (Routledge, London) pp 28–44
47.
MackenzieF, 1992, “‘The worse it got, the more we laughed’: A discourse of resistance among farmers of Eastern Ontario”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space10691–713
48.
MackenzieF, 1994, “‘Is where I sit, where I stand?’: The Ontario Farm Women's Network, politics and difference”Journal of Rural Studies10101–115
49.
MacnaghtenP, 1993, “Discourses of nature: Argumentation and power”, in Discourse Analytic Research Eds BurmanEParkerI, (Routledge, London) pp 52–72
50.
MarsdenKArceA, 1995, “Constructing quality: Emerging food networks in the rural transition”Environment and Planning A271261–1279
51.
MartinP, 1995, “The constitution of power in Landcare: A post-structuralist perspective with modernist undertones”Rural Society530–37
52.
MeyerKLobaoLM, 1994, “Engendering the farm crisis: Women's political response in the U.S.A.”, in Gender and Rurality Eds WhatmoreSMarsdenTLoweP, (David Fulton, London) pp 69–86
53.
MiesM, 1986Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour (Zed Press, London)
54.
MooreHL, 1994A Passion for Difference (Polity Press, Cambridge)
55.
MurdochJMarsdenT, 1995, “The spatialization of politics: Local and national actor-spaces in environmental conflict”Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers20368–380
56.
O'RiordanT, 1989, “The challenge for environmentalism”, in New Models in Geography: The Political Economy PerspectiveVolume 1 Eds PeetRThriftN, (Unwin Hyman, London) pp 77–102
57.
RichA, 1976Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution (W W Norton, New York)
58.
RobertsB, 1994, “Women in rural conservation and Landcare”, in Country Women at the Crossroads: Perspectives on the Lives of Rural Australian Women in the 1990s Eds FranklinMShortLMTeatherEK, (University of New England Press, Armidale, NE) pp 125–133
59.
RocheleauDThomas-SlayterBWangariE, 1996, “Gender and environment: A feminist political ecology perspective”, in Feminist Political Ecology: Global Issues and Local Experiences Eds RocheleauDThomas-SlayterBWangariE, (Routledge, London) pp 3–23
60.
RoseG, 1993Feminism and Geography: The Limits of Geographical Knowledge (Polity Press, Cambridge)
61.
SachsC, 1983The Invisible Farmers: Women in Agricultural Production (Rowman and Allenheld, Totowa, NJ)
62.
SachsC, 1994, “Rural women's environmental activism in the USA”, in Gender and Rurality Eds WhatmoreSMarsdenTLoweP, (David Fulton, London) pp 117–135
SeagerJ, 1996, “‘Hysterical housewives’ and other mad women: Grassroots environmental organizing in the United States”, in Feminist Political Ecology: Global Issues and Local Experiences Eds RocheleauDThomas-SlayterBWangariE, (Routledge, London) pp 271–283
65.
ShivaV, 1989Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development (Kali for Women, Dehli; Zed Press, London)
66.
TeatherEK, 1996, “Farm women in Canada, New Zealand and Australia redefine their rurality”Journal of Rural Studies121–14
67.
Thomas-SlayterBWangariERocheleauD, 1996, “Feminist political ecology: Crosscutting themes, theoretical insights, policy implications”, in Feminist Political Ecology: Global Issues and Local Experiences Eds RocheleauDThomas-SlayterBWangariE, (Routledge, London) pp 287–307
68.
van der BurgMEndeveldM, (Eds), 1994Women on Family Farms: Gender Research, EC Policies and New PerspectivesCircle for Rural European Studies, Wageningen Agricultural University, Wageningen
69.
WangariEThomas-SlayterBRocheleauD, 1996, “Gendered visions for survival: Semi-arid regions in Kenya”, in Feminist Political Ecology: Global Issues and Local Experiences Eds RocheleauDThomas-SlayterBWangariE, (Routledge, London) pp 127–154
70.
WeedonC, 1987Feminist Practice and Post-structuralist Theory (Basil Blackwell, Oxford)
71.
WhatmoreS, 1991Farming Women: Gender, Work and Family Enterprise (Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hants)
72.
WIA (Eds), 1995aAgents for Change: Evaluation of the First International Women in Agriculture Conference, Melbourne, 1994 Women in Agriculture 1994 International Conference Committee; copy available from Dr Liepins
73.
WIA (Eds), 1995bFarming for our Future 1994: Post-conference Proceedings Women in Agriculture 1994 International Conference Committee; copy available from Dr Liepins
74.
Women on Farms Gathering, 1993Proceedings Women on Farms Gathering, Tallangatta; copy available from Dr Liepins
75.
WoodsM, 1997, “Discourses of power and rurality: Local politics in Somerset in the 20th century”Political Geography16453–478
76.
YoungIM, 1990, “The ideal of community and the politics of difference”, in Feminism/Postmodernism Ed. NicholsonL, (Routledge, New York) pp 300–323
