Land Ownership and Women's Power in a Midwestern Farming Community

Control over land, a scarce resource for farmers, is fbund to be the source of women's power in a community of central Illinois farm families. Data were obtained mainly from interviews with and participant observation of22 households of German extraction. Because men control the actual farming and distribution of what is produced, women generally cede power obtained by means of land ownership to husbands or male relatives. This shift of authority and other agricultural practices in rural America are seen to account for male domination in both family and community. Women appear to make a trade-off of lower status and less power fbr male management of the family enterprise which assures them a financially secure widowhood.