A Gendered Struggle for Survival

Everyday Life on Livestock Farms Viewed through Museum Documentation

Authors

• Maria Vanha-Similä University of Turku https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8463-5529

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30666/elore.115425

Keywords:

livestock farming, museum collections, survival, content analysis, gender roles, photographs

Abstract

The livestock farming sector is undergoing major changes as an increasing number of farms in Finland are closing down. The debate on rising costs for livestock farms, climate change, conditions in which farm animals are kept and security of supply involves various groups.

In this article, I examine the livestock farmers’ views on their everyday lives. The article’s research material is based on the results of the Ammuu! Life on a Cattle Farm photo competition organised by the Sarka Finnish Museum of Agricultural for cattle farms in spring 2020, which includes photographs taken by cattle farmers, along with accompanying texts.  A participatory ethnographic approach made the farmers active agents in the creation of the research materials.

The main question of my research is how do farmers describe and interpret their everyday lives. I have analysed the material using visual methods of photographic research and close reading. My analysis shows how the photo contest became an arena for women. Through the photo contest, the women who participated in the contest have attempted to build and strengthen their role of women as professionals in the livestock industry. Everyday life on farms is still partly gendered, but my article enriches the picture of the everyday life on livestock farms.

My research also shows how farmers have used photographs and texts to open up the everyday life of cattle farms to audiences, which is often presented in pictures and stories as a constant struggle for survival. The research material has a lot of the everyday happiness of farms, but alongside the representation of gender, the theme of the struggle for survival is at the centre of the material. Low profits on farms, long working days, sick cows, commitment to the work, mechanical breakdowns and variable weather conditions are all present in the photographs farmers take and the texts they write. In the article, I provide new information on the everyday life of livestock farms in Finland in the 2020s. The research material, produced by self-documentation, gives the perspective of livestock farmers on this topical subject.