Gendered Work in Family Farm Tourism

Abstract

Changes in agriculture from farming to tourism imply change from primary production to service work. Based on visits and interviews with entrepreneurs of four tourist businesses, this paper will explore consequences of this change for work. The tourist work on farms is divided into three main categories: administration, accommodation and activities. All of them consist of multiple tasks that are gendered in both traditional and new ways. Women do most of the administrative work, men most of the activities (the core products), while accommodation work is done by both. An important part of tourist work is emotional. As tourist hosts both men and women aim to create good feeling states in the guests, and the paper explores the gendered aspects of emotional work.