Doctoral Dissertation Research: (In)visible Work: Analyzing Labor Performed in Agricultural Markets

本项目研究市场化改革对家庭关系和妇女农业工作的影响。该项目的问题是：经济变化如何塑造家庭和相关劳动力市场等性别机构？一个核心问题是，很大一部分农业工作没有得到适当的衡量，因此没有记录在官方统计数据中。指导该项目的四个研究问题：(A)如何构建对妇女工作的官方衡量标准？(B)地方一级农业的经济变化对妇女工作的一项衡量标准有何影响？(C)妇女的无偿工作在解释农业经济变化与有偿工作之间的联系方面发挥了什么作用？(D)经济变化如何影响家庭内部权力关系和性别规范？该项目在国家、地方和家庭这三个相互关联的分析层面上审查农业政策的监管变化如何影响妇女在农业生产和销售方面的工作。在每一级，该项目力求展示农业社区如何正式和非正式地界定妇女的有偿和无偿工作，以及在经济变化下如何重新界定这项工作。该项目的调查结果将有助于更广泛地了解a)妇女的工作--家庭内外的有偿和无偿活动，以及b)大规模决策如何转化为家庭和个人一级的决策。这些调查结果将有助于就如何通过改变正式政策来改善家庭和妇女在农业地区的生活提出建议，这些政策包括以合同耕作、放松销售管制和市场私有化为重点的政策。这个项目将审查妇女的工作，特别是农业方面的工作，在市场经济中是看得见还是看不见的过程。该项目将使用一个融合的混合方法研究框架，研究经济变化与家庭和相关劳动力市场等性别化机构之间的关系。在这一框架内，人口普查和调查的数量数据和主要来源的质量数据将在同一数据编制阶段收集；然后，两类数据将分别进行分析，并在解释结果的阶段合并。为了收集基本数据，将对60名从事农业工作并与农民生产者公司有关联的妇女进行深入的半结构化访谈，并在较大的城市地区周围的农场和农产品市场进行参与者观察。该项目的发现将为有关农业工作中的性别、经济变化和家庭性别关系的社会学理论提供信息。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project studies the impact of market reforms on household relations and women's work in agriculture. The project asks: how does economic change shape gendered institutions such as the household and related labor markets? A central problem is that a significant portion of agricultural work is not measured appropriately, and thus unrecorded in official statistics. Four research questions guide this project: (a) how are official measures of women's work constructed? (b) what is the impact of economic change in agriculture at the local level upon one measure of women's work? (c) what role does women's unpaid work play in the explanation of the links between economic change in agriculture and paid work? (d) how does economic change affect intrahousehold power relations and gender norms? This project examines the ways in which regulatory changes in agricultural policy affect women's work in agricultural production and marketing at interconnected levels of analysis: national, local, and household. At each level, the project seeks to show how women's paid and unpaid work is officially and unofficially defined in agricultural communities, and how this work is redefined under economic change. The findings from this project will contribute to a broader understanding of a) women's work--paid and unpaid activities undertaken within and beyond the household and b) how large-scale policy decisions translate into decisions made at the family and individual level. These findings will help generate recommendations on how households' and women's lives in agricultural areas may be improved by change in formal policies including those focused on contract farming, deregulation of sales, and privatization of markets.This project will examine the processes by which women's work, particularly work in agricultural contexts, is rendered visible or invisible in the market economy. The project will use a convergent mixed methods research framework to study the relationship between economic change and gendered institutions like the household and related labor markets. Within this framework, quantitative data from censuses and surveys and qualitative data from primary sources will be collected in the same phase of data production; both strands of data will then be analysed independently and merged at the stage of interpretation of results. To collect primary data, in-depth semi-structured interviews will be conducted with 60 women engaged in farm work and also associated with farmer producer companies, along with participant observation on farms and at agricultural markets around a larger urban area. Findings from the project will inform sociological theories regarding gender in agricultural work, economic change, and household gender relations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.