Alarming rates of suicide among production farmers have prompted researchers to investigate factors associated with depressive symptoms among this population. Aspects of farm life and farming can contribute to higher levels of depressive symptoms. Higher levels of depression can also increase an individual’s risk of injury and development of chronic disease, impacting overall quality of life. Despite the approximate 3.5 million farm women in the U.S., current research has focused on the male farmer. Men and women have different responses to stressors, and women in general have a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms. Farm women can be further subjected to stressors associated with farming as an occupation and their gendered role within the agrarian culture. The large number of farm women affected, the relationship of chronic depressive symptoms on health and quality of life, the lack of current research available, and the rising rates of suicide and depressive symptoms among farmers emphasize the need for further investigation of farm women and depressive symptoms. The overall purpose of this dissertation was to 1) explore the current state of the science of farm women and depressive symptoms and identify variables commonly associated with depressive symptoms among farm women, 2) identify variables influencing levels of depressive symptoms within farm women aged 50 and over and identify differences between those women with high depressive symptoms and those with low depressive symptoms, and 3) establish the reliability and validity of the 12-item John Henry Active Coping Scale (JHAC-12) within the sample. A systematic review of the literature revealed that there is a need for more research with strong study designs regarding farm women and depressive symptoms within the context of their environment, culture, and occupation. The review identified multidimensional factors from farm women’s lives that influence their level of depressive symptoms. Farm women’s ethnicity, the agrarian culture, family and social relations, as well as specific demographics were identified as key variables associated with an increased risk of higher depressive symptoms. Because of the identification of the multi-dimensional factors, the use of the Modified Biopsychosocial Model (MBPS) was selected as a framework for continued research as it depicts the interrelationship between the factors and their influence on farm women’s depressive symptoms. The MBPS was applied to data from 358 farm women aged 50 and older from a larger cohort study, and a secondary analysis was performed. Multivariable binary logistic regression was used to identify those variables associated with depressive symptoms among farm women. Depressive symptoms were predicted by race/ethnicity, years of education, adequacy of income for vacation, perceived health status, perceived stress score, and active coping score. Significant differences between those farm women with low CES-D score (< 16) and those with high CES-D score (≥ 16) were noted. Race/ethnicity, years of education, adequate income for vacation and retirement, reported health status of fair or better, perceived stress score, active coping score and satisfaction from farm work were all significant between groups. Women who were non-White, had less education, reported income not adequate for vacation or retirement, reported poor health, higher levels of perceived stress, lower levels of active coping and who were not satisfied with farm work were more likely to be in the high CES-D group. A principal component analysis with direct oblimin rotation in a sample population of older farm women (n=458) identified two dominant themes of the JHAC-12: “commitment to hard work” and “self-efficacy.” The instrument component structure reflects the culture of the agrarian society. In the two-component solution, 2 items were removed from the scale after revealing low values of communality (< .3). The item reduction resulted in more refined scale, increasing explained variance by 4.1% with less items. Cronbach’s of the JHAC-12 (α = .78) and JHAC-10 (α = .76) indicated high levels of reliability for both scales. Rotation of the items resulted in a simple structure with high loadings within items, no major-cross-loadings and little correlation between components (r = .29), supporting both convergent and discriminant validity in this population. The ability of the JHAC to encompass the socio-culture aspects of active coping among farm women and obtain a quantifiable result supports the JHAC as an important tool to utilize in future studies of depressive symptoms and farm women with use of the JHAC-10 in future studies of farm women decreasing the burden of the participants. Although there are limitations within each document, each section adds to the science of farm women and depression symptoms and provides directions for future research. The major gaps identified were: 1) the need for current research with stronger study designs, 2) studies of farm women across their life spans, 3) the need for focused studies among minority and migrant women, 4) an understanding of farm women and their leisure time, and 5) a broader application of the MBPS theory to include a large number of social variables shown to be associated with farm women and depressive symptoms that were not available in the dataset.

Women throughout the world have found emancipation through education. Yet, there has been no research on the role that education plays in dairy farm women's primary, on-farm identity development and how farm women's identities develop. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine dairy farm women's perceptions of previous learning (education) and its influence on their primary, on-farm identity development. The feminist standpoint theory provided the framework for this study. A homogeneous, purposeful sample of 10 active dairy farm women were interviewed using individual, face to face, semistructured questions to answer the question: What are dairy farm women's perceptions of previous learning (education) and its influence on their primary, on-farm identity development? Emergent themes and patterns were identified following the in-depth data analysis process of interpretive phenomenological analysis. The findings revealed 3 superordinate themes: identity, identity development, and education. All of the participants discussed factors that contributed to their identity development (family, emotions, and freedom), and they described their perceptions of education's influence on their primary, on-farm identity development. Incidental learning and transfer of skills were perceived as having the strongest influence followed by informal learning, mentorship, and formal learning. The postive social change implication of this research was to change the way agricultural educators and policy makers present information to dairy farm women.

In this dissertation I develop a Marxian class analysis of corn-producing family farms in the Midwestern United States during the early twentieth century. I theorize the family farm as a complex hybrid of mostly feudal and ancient class structures that has survived through a contradictory combination of strategies that includes the feudal exploitation of farm family members, the cannibalization of neighboring ancient farmers in a vicious hunt for superprofits, and the intervention of state welfare programs. The class-based definition of the family farm yields unique insights into three broad aspects of U.S. agricultural history. First, my analysis highlights the crucial, yet under-recognized role of farm women and children's unpaid labor in subsidizing the family farm. Second I offer a new, class-based perspective on the roots of the twentieth century "miracle of productivity" in U.S. agriculture, the rise of the agribusiness giants that depended on the perpetual, technology-induced crisis of that agriculture, and the implications of government farm programs. Third, this dissertation demonstrates how the unique set of contradictions and circumstances facing family farmers during the early twentieth century, including class exploitation, were connected to concern for their ability to serve the needs of U.S. industrial capitalist development. The argument presented here highlights the significant costs associated with the intensification of exploitation in the transition to industrial agriculture in the U.S. The family farm is implicated in this social theft. Ironically, the same family farm is often held up as the bedrock of American life. Its exalted status as an example of democracy, independence, self-sufficiency, and morality is enabled among other things by the absence of class awareness in U.S. society. When viewed through the lens of class, the hallowed family farm becomes example of one of the most exploitative institutions in the U.S. economy. The myth of its superiority takes on a new significance as one of the important non-economic processes helping to overdetermine the family farm's long survival, while participating in foreclosing truly radical transformations of these institutions to non-exploitative alternatives.

On January 31, 1911, the Homemakers' Clubs of Saskatchewan became an official organisation under the direction of the University of Saskatchewan. Established to provide isolated rural women with companionship, access to education, and the opportunity to carry out community service, Homemakers' Clubs appealed to thousands of farm women because they provided the means by which they could improve themselves, their farm homes, and their communities. Its appeal also lay in the fact that the organisation remained non-political and non-sectarian, focusing instead on women's primary responsibilities to their homes and their families. To that end, Homemakers' Clubs embraced a domestic ideology that institionalised notions of gender and celebrated women's roles in the home. Given that the nature of farm women's work was not restricted to the household, however, Homemakers' Clubs allowed rural women to redefine an urban domesticity to include their farming responsibilities. Moreover, in a setting where gender lines were often blurred and the division of labour was not always strictly defined, membership in an organisation that reinforced gender roles, promoted family and community life, and embraced a traditional mandate provided farm women with a level of respectability and femininity that was often lost in a farming setting. Finally, the domestic ideology under which the Homemakers' Clubs operated allowed its members to find recognition and validation in their work, and, in their goals to elevate home life, to legitimise their work, and to adjust domestic ideology to include their farming responsibilities, the organisation became a space in which its members discussed, debated, explored, and, in some cases, challenged common perceptions of women; they subtly challenged the status quo and demanded validation and recognition for their work in and contributions to their farms and communities. As such, an organisation that may outwardly appear to be a traditional women's organisation devoted strictly to the exchange of recipes and household advice, was, in actuality, quietly political and provided farm women with a sense of identity that enabled them to contribute fundamentally to their rural homes, families, and communities.

On January 31, 1911, the Homemakers' Clubs of Saskatchewan became an official organisation under the direction of the University of Saskatchewan. Established to provide isolated rural women with companionship, access to education, and the opportunity to carry out community service, Homemakers' Clubs appealed to thousands of farm women because they provided the means by which they could improve themselves, their farm homes, and their communities. Its appeal also lay in the fact that the organisation remained non-political and non-sectarian, focusing instead on women's primary responsibilities to their homes and their families. To that end, Homemakers' Clubs embraced a domestic ideology that institionalised notions of gender and celebrated women's roles in the home. Given that the nature of farm women's work was not restricted to the household, however, Homemakers' Clubs allowed rural women to redefine an urban domesticity to include their farming responsibilities. Moreover, in a setting where gender lines were often blurred and the division of labour was not always strictly defined, membership in an organisation that reinforced gender roles, promoted family and community life, and embraced a traditional mandate provided farm women with a level of respectability and femininity that was often lost in a farming setting. Finally, the domestic ideology under which the Homemakers' Clubs operated allowed its members to find recognition and validation in their work, and, in their goals to elevate home life, to legitimise their work, and to adjust domestic ideology to include their farming responsibilities, the organisation became a space in which its members discussed, debated, explored, and, in some cases, challenged common perceptions of women; they subtly challenged the status quo and demanded validation and recognition for their work in and contributions to their farms and communities. As such, an organisation that may outwardly appear to be a traditional women's organisation devoted strictly to the exchange of recipes and household advice, was, in actuality, quietly political and provided farm women with a sense of identity that enabled them to contribute fundamentally to their rural homes, families, and communities.

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This thesis explores the ways in which modern history-writing practices reiterate race-based categories of citizenship. To investigate these practices across time, I have examined discourses produced by the United Farm Women of Alberta (UFWA) in 1925, and discourses produced by the contemporary magazine American Renaissance (AR). The UFWA were concerned with the promotion and definition of citizenship, and in so doing laid race as a foundation of Canadian identity. AR is a magazine that concerns itself with white nationalism in the contemporary United States. Drawing upon Avery Gordon and Wendy Brown’s theories of history and haunting, I have situated these discourses in imaginative relation to one another, illuminating the “past” in the present. I have also critically examined how I am complicit in reproducing the historical practices under study; as an architecture of history, haunting helps to imagine alternatives for the study of history and social life, particularly our own. / vii, 160 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm