‘You're Not a Man at All!’: Masculinity,Responsibility,and Staying on the Land in Contemporary Ireland

Abstract

This paper explores some of the competing pressures at work in the lives of a particular group of Irish men, that is, young male farmers working in different types of farming regions in Ireland. As the economic and social landscape of farming is undergoing transformation, reducing the attractiveness and viability of farming as an occupation, there is, simultaneously, a strong association between constructions of farming masculinity and staying on the land. The paper explores some of these tensions. Farming masculinities are bound up with a sense of cultural and familial responsibility, which is attached to maintaining the family farm, but it is increasingly difficult to fulfil these responsibilities in the current environment. This can lead to stress and anxiety on the part of young farmers. It is argued that the construction and negotiation of farming masculinity is spatially contingent, reflecting local and regional geographies of gender.