“Some Things Never Change, We’re Always Second in Line”: Gendered Experiences of Progress and the Agricultural Crisis in Almeria, Spain*

Abstract

This article addresses sex-gender relations within the context of changing class relations shaped by the historical formation of an intensive system of agricultural production in Almeria (Spain). The analysis of work, both on the farm and within the domestic unit, guides the research, which relates socio-historical conditions and the subjective experiences and identities of men and women farmers. We begin from the theoretical premise that the change from being employed as wage laborers to becoming farm owners was a family project in which women and sex-gender relations played an essential, though hidden, role. We use a qualitative methodology and an historical perspective focused on the different phases of the Almerian agricultural model: the origin and consolidation of the sector (1960–1970), a boom period (the decade of the 1980s) and the strangulation of the model (from the decade of the 2000s until today). The article discusses and concludes that despite the centrality of the participation of women farmers and the change in class position, the subordinate place they occupy—in both the domestic sphere and on the farm– has continued throughout the different phases of the model. Thus, we find that “Some things never change, we're always second in line.”.