Global Shifts, Sedimentations, and Imaginaries: An Introduction to the Special Issue on Women and Agriculture

In this special issue we introduce new understandings of the role of women in agriculture. Previous scholarship in this area has focused largely on family farming and the gendered relations inherent in that mode of production. In this issue we draw attention to the differential gendered arrangements emerging in global corporate agriculture, noting the various ways women’s labor has been co‐opted by organizations operating on a global scale. The lack of constraints on these organizations creates a climate for a new oppression of women in agricultural production. We also note that the decline in family farming in developed countries has not changed the fact that women act to maintain a hierarchical mode of agricultural production. We expose, too, interpretations of gender relations in ancient agricultural societies as flawed. This special issue opens up challenges to researchers and brings new concepts and understandings to this field. We look forward to a new and invigorated exchange of ideas.