GETTING INTO IT - FARM ROLES AND CAREERS OF NEW-ZEALAND WOMEN

Researchers have challenged the stereotype that farm women's roles and influence are primarily domestic by documenting the number of women's on-farm roles. This study extends this approach by considering the in terrelationships among women's roles and influence in reproductive and productive domains. A qualitative research method was used to investi gate women's ways of describing the range of their on-farm roles and t he process of entry into and exit from those roles. Participants were farm women from south island, New Zealand. Findings showed women's wid e range of involvement in household and farm labor, management, and ow nership of their farms. Levels of involvement differed throughout the three phases of their farm careers: making a place, getting into it, r etirement. Hypotheses were developed from the findings for further del ineation of the range of women's on-farm involvement and barriers and opportunities to the development of women's on-farm careers.