Breaking into a Masculine Discourse. Women and Farm Forestry

Abstract

This paper studies the gendering processes of farm forestry by means of discourse analysis. Forestry has traditionally been one of the most masculine rural activities. In spite of a relatively large number of women forest owners, women have only been active in this industry to a limited extent, and made little impact on the masculine culture of forestry. Looking at the main sites of discourse in the magazine of the forest owners, women are absent at the most influential site: organization and management. At the site of practical forestry work, women are sometimes represented, but as tokens in a man’s world. The only site in which women can be seen to obtain a position is that of expert work and knowledge, but this is not a change originating from forestry itself.