The advent of modern agribusiness irrevocably changed the patterns
of life and labor on the American family farm. In
Entitled to
Power, Katherine Jellison examines midwestern farm women's
unexpected response to new labor-saving devices.
Federal farm policy at mid-century treated farm women as consumers,
not producers. New technologies, as promoted by agricultural
extension agents and by home appliance manufacturers, were expected
to create separate spheres of work in the field and in the house.
These innovations, however, enabled women to work as operators of
farm machinery or independently in the rural community. Jellison
finds that many women preferred their productive roles on and off
the farm to the domestic ideal emphasized by contemporary
prescriptive literature. A variety of visual images of farm women
from advertisements and agricultural publications serve to contrast
the publicized view of these women with the roles that they chose
for themselves. The letters, interviews, and memoirs assembled by
Jellison reclaim the many contributions women made to modernizing
farm life.
Originally published in 1993.
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