Between Harmony and Conflicting Interests: Gendered Marital Negotiations in Hungarian Post-socialist Farm Family Enterprises

Abstract

This paper explores decision making processes in farm families with off farm working wives in post socialist Hungary based on an interview material with ten farm families. Decision making concerning issues of consumption and production is seen as a key arena for the articulation of gender relations within the farm family. Farm families with the husband being the head of the enterprise and the wife having an off farm wage labour constitute a specific case. Off farm incomes, in Hungary, played a crucial role in the capital accumulation phase of the farms. As previous research indicated, off farm incomes often constitute an integral part of the overall farm strategy. Off farm working wives contribute to the reproduction of the farm enterprise in diverse ways, such as through direct participation in the farm labour, through their reproductive labour and by releasing the farm from supplying consumption expenses by bringing in additional assets. Meanwhile, the economic boundaries (i.e. ownership of assets and economic liability) of the family farm are intimately interwoven with the family as a reproductive, kinship and consumption unit. This paper explores family relations as formed along dynamics of power (i.e. of equality vs inequality) and dynamics of solidarity (focus on individual autonomy vs processes strengthening couple relations). With roots in the capability approach participation in decision making is seen as an expression of the ability to voice, negotiate and or enforce initiatives grounded in individual interests.