Chicken Woman

Abstract Rural farm women were chickens’ earliest caretakers and did not, as some literature has suggested, disappear from the work of chicken farming as poultry industrialized. From World War II through the end of the twentieth century, many rural Arkansas farm women were primary managers and workers on chicken farms long after industrialization and vertical integration. With their knowledge of how to care for chickens and their experience keeping track of farm finances, they were important participants in the growth of this new sector of American agribusiness. Industry, media, and government played a critical role in obscuring and prescribing gender roles in the production of this booming agricultural commodity.