Feminisms and Ruralities

Barbara Pini is a professor in the School of Humanities at Griffith University. Berit Brandth is professor of sociology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.Jo Little is professor of geography at the University of Exeter.

• Chapter 1: Introduction, Barbara Pini, Berit Brandth and Jo LittleChapter 2: Putting the Community First: Feminism and Rural American Women’s Activism in the Twentieth Century, Sara Egge and Jenny Barker DevineChapter 3: A Rural Woman’s Impact on Canadian Feminist Practice and Theory, Susan MachumChapter 4: Feminism in Rural Finland: A Comparison of Agendas of Two Women’s Organizations, Maarit SireniChapter 5: Paradoxes of a Women’s Organization in the Forestry Industry, Berit Brandth, Gro Follo and Marit S. HaugenChapter 6: Gender Mainstreaming or Strategic Essentialism? How to Achieve Rural Gender Equality, Sally Shortall Chapter 7: Feminist Connections in and beyond the Rural, Belinda LeachChapter 8: The Feminist and the Cowboy: Reading “An Unlikely Love Story”, Barbara Pini and Imelda WhelehanChapter 9: The Development of Feminist Perspectives in Rural Gender Studies, Jo LittleChapter 10: Finding ‘Room to Manoeuvre’ – Gender, Agency and the Family Farm, Anne Byrne, Nata Duvvury, Áine Macken-Walsh and Tanya WatsonChapter 11: The Gendered Ma(i)ze of Globalization, Jennifer Rogers-BrownChapter 12: Rural Queer Theory, Julie KellerChapter 13: Girls’ Studies in the Rural, Kate CairnsChapter 14: Reflections on a Feminist Care Approach to Rural Fisheries Communities, Nicole PowerChapter 15: Memory Work and Reflexive Gendered Bodies: Examining Rural Landscapes in the Making, Lia Bryant and Mona LivholtsChapter 16: Conclusion, Barbara Pini, Jo Little and Berit Brandth

It may be that in the past, feminist scholars paid little attention to gender inequality in rural areas because of presumed patriarchy and the associated masculinity of rural life. With this collected volume, which follows earlier efforts by two of the editors . . . the scholarly gap is closing . . . the overall scholarship in the contributors’ range of approaches and locations—issues of gender from queer theory to roles in agricultural and extractive production—is impressive. The introduction, conclusion, and 14 chapters are grouped into two sections. One is devoted to feminism and rural women, both historically and in present popular culture; the second section represents a collection of perspectives in several geographic locations. This solid contribution to the literature on women in rural areas continues the intellectual conversation about the importance of both place and gender. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.