The Intellectual Legacy of Mary Neth’s Work on Farm Women and Rural Communities

Mary Neth’s 1995 book, Preserving the Family Farm: Women, Community, and the Foundations of Agribusiness in the Midwest, 1900-1940, made a major contribution to the analysis of the connections between gender and the political economy that shaped farm women’s lives and fueled farmers’ resistance to the transformation of rural life wrought by agribusiness. Focusing on the processes of negotiation between women and men in farming families and rural communities, Íeth illuminated the relationship between women’s work and their power. Tracing the dense networks that connected farm families, she also showed how cooperation in work generated and sustained radical farm movements.