Harvest of Opportunity: New Horizons for Farm Women

Patricia Roome is Co-ordinator of History at the Humanities Department
of Mount Royal College in Calgary.

The changing world of the Prairie farm woman is the focus of
Saskatchewan journalist Ross’s second book. While her first study
examined the altered political economy of Prairie agriculture, Harvest
of Opportunity documents the new horizons rural women are exploring,
motivated by such complex factors as their desire for financial
independence, the impact of feminist ideas, and the 1980s decline in
grain prices. Arranged into four sections with the author’s
introductory comments, this book presents interviews with 24 rural
women. Their lives illustrate how the traditional occupation of
“dependent farm housewife” has altered; many farm women, like their
husbands, now work for wages or operate their own businesses.

The first section examines some simple storefront operations that
involve creating and marketing products like T-shirts and scarves; the
second investigates more-extensive on-farm enterprises such as a family
catering business, an upholstery company, and a travel agency. In the
next section, the focus is on farm women who work in the Prairie towns,
at jobs ranging from teaching to computer sales and consulting. The
women who use their farming experience to create agrarian alternatives
such as greenhouse enterprises, market gardens, sheep ranches, duck
farms, or farm-vacation businesses share their experiences in the last
section.

Since the sparse literature on Canadian farm women comprises mainly
academic studies and statistical research, Harvest of Opportunity fills
a vacuum by presenting a readable study of rural women’s experiences.
Because farm women are rarely interviewed about their work or their role
on the farm, these women’s reflections are invaluable, although the
interviews sometimes become repetitive and tedious. Since the collection
is biased toward self-employed women over wage-earners, readers will
learn most about the former’s successes and failures. But overall, the
result is a moving and thought-provoking kaleidoscope of stories that
focuses on women’s initiatives and will be useful to both general and
academic audiences. Canadian farm women will discover new ideas,
business information, and a sense of shared experience. Urban readers
will see the faces behind the mythic institution of the family farm and
discover similarities with farm women.