Division of labor on family farms: A life course analysis

Research has not adequately explored the organizational structure of labor on family farms. Although it has been suggested that the structure of the division of labor on family farms is influenced by the family life cycle, consistent results have not been reported. In this article, we integrate the commodity systems approach and the developmental perspective to examine the influence of the family life cycle on women's involvement in farm labor. Consistent with the hypotheses, the results indicate that life course stages influence women's involvement in farm labor, and this effect is especially significant for labor-intensive tasks such as tobacco production. The results also indicate that an understanding of the division of farm labor must take into acount men's and women's off-farm labor and other factors that relate the farm enterprise to the larger economy.