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The cultural turn in research also affected rural studies, creating interest in the role of communities in the production and maintenance of gender relations (Little and Panelli, 2003). Bock and de Haan (2004), in particular, note the close ties between rural gender studies and their sociopolitical implications. Gender relations, in this sense, are useful in revealing the cultural (as opposed to biological) sources of socially appropriate masculinity and femininity (Shortall, 2002). Brandth (1995) noted in her study on masculinity and tractor advertisements that, even in the face of constant gender reorganization, male dominance remains firmly in place; and Silvasti (2003) writes that peasant communities maintain cultural scripts of patriarchy even as they adapt to meet the demands of modernization. Similarly, Saugeres (2002, p. 644) describes gender relations on farms and in rural communities as much more than a ‘state of mind’, but rather as ideologies reproduced through everyday activities – most of which remain patriarchal in nature. Little (2007, p. 853) links this to the ‘policing’ of sexual behaviours and the marginalization of non-heterosexual sexual practices within closely knit rural communities striving to ensure continuity in the values and morals they wish to reproduce. Five years after her study of NBK-nitt, Brandth (2002) attributed the male/female duality’s persistence in society to its roots in structures and institutions that allowed it to be taken for granted as the norm and woven into discourses of all types. These discourses shape ideals of rural women, so that they are pictured as wives and mothers with no option of choosing the route of the single, child-free business professional (Little and Austin, 1996). Northern Ireland is no exception to this phenomenon, and, as a 2004 report on gender equality indicators testified, is actually more conservative in views regarding marriage than the rest of the UK (Breitenbach and Galligan, 2004). Interestingly, Little and Austin (1996) propose that many rural women actually deeply value the very characteristics of rural life that limit their choices regarding occupation and domestic duties, viewing them as simply fulfilling expectations as sustainers of rural communities.

Many rural areas may hold to a code of morality which places women’s self-care and self-interest at the end of a long line of ‘strictly proscribed’ (and, at times, conflicting) duties of nurturance and care required by their family farm, family and/or community (Heather et al., 2005). Women’s acceptance in the community is determined by how well these differing gender identities and duties are carried out (Saugeres, 2002). This dynamic is made more complex by the fact that women’s internalization of these expectations leads them to feel responsible not only for their own family, but for other members of the community as well (Little and Austin, 1996). In Northern Ireland, this dynamic has been reinforced by ‘the Troubles’ as women adapted to care for families during times when husbands and brothers were imprisoned (Women’s Resource and Development Agency, 2008). Rural women may not recognize this as a form of subordination, but instead often label these expectations as simply an aspect of what it means to be part of a family rather than as gender roles (Heather et al., 2005).

The subordinated position of women in rural areas can be attributed to a multitude of factors, ranging from long-standing ideologies regarding gender identities, relations and roles, to the decline in the economic stability of rural areas. Women in these communities operate in multiple gender identities, relations and roles, in spite of the obvious difficulty and personal cost involved in doing so. Although the rural community has come far from its days of being solely associated with farming (Bock and de Haan, 2004), the unique circumstances of rural women living and working on farms make it necessary at this point to examine more specific literature regarding their experiences.