FARMERS‘ WIVES ‐ THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE FARM BUSINESS
基于英国和爱尔兰的问卷调查及农场调查数据，揭示了农民妻子对农场经营的贡献常被忽视，她们提供了约5%的常规劳动力工时和9-10%的劳动力投入，并指出忽视女性参与可能危及家庭农场的未来。
The contribution which farmers' wives make to the farm business is typically overlooked and under‐valued, yet the farm could not function without it. The paper describes the nature of the work done by wives on farms in the UK and Ireland as revealed by two recent postal surveys. Using data from the Farm Business Survey for England and Wales, it attempts to quantify some aspects of the work. It is suggested that farm wives may contribute 5 per cent of the manual hours worked by the regular labour force and 9–10 per cent of the total regular labour input on main holdings. Further, as hired and family labour is shed and farmers seek additional employment, the wife's labour contribution is likely to become more significant. Continued neglect of women's involvement may jeopardise the future of the family farm. The paper suggests how data collection procedures might be improved to give a more realistic picture of the wife's contribution.