Empirical data collected from dairy farmers in Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry counties in Eastern Ontario provide the basis for an analysis of the actions of Women for the Survival of Agriculture (WSA), a network of women farmers which emerged in the 1970s in a context of deepening agricultural crisis. Conceptually, I draw on postmodern feminist critiques of Foucault's work to argue that the effectiveness of WSA as a political voice locally, provincially, and federally has depended on the strategic manipulation of two contradictory ideologies. On the one hand, an explicitly feminist discourse created by WSA challenges male hegemony in work and property rights on the farm. On the other, the struggle for equality, for farm partnerships, is grounded in an appeal to the ‘family farm’, a symbol of national security and sovereignty, which in the past has served to perpetuate gender-based hierarchy.
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