‘Mary, mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?’: examining gender roles and relations in community gardens

The purpose of this research was to study community gardens as sites for exploring the influence of leisure on gender roles and relations. In particular, we sought to understand how gender roles and relations were reproduced and/or resisted within the leisure setting of a community garden. Through our analysis of the data we identified three main themes that illustrate community gardens as sites where traditional gender roles were both resisted and reproduced. The first theme relates to the division of work in a garden. The second theme relates to initiative and leadership styles. Based on the success of their gardens, many women were empowered to seek new opportunities or responsibilities outside their garden, the third theme of the findings. Our findings illustrate the complexity of resistance and reproduction.