Women and the vineyard

This work constitutes the first synthesis on the evolution of the role of women in viticulture from 1850 to the present day. The author has sought to highlight the various aspects of female involvement in the wine industry, to decipher the differences according to terroirs, modes of operation, and economic status (employees, farmers' wives, owners). The documentary material of the book is based on the intersection of various sources: vineyard accounting records, administrative reports, major agricultural surveys, systematic review of professional publications, and interviews with female winegrowers from different generations. The period from 1850 to 1914 was the historical construction phase of the gendered division of viticultural tasks. In a context of renewal in French viticulture, the employment of female labor is both crucial and intermittent, but no specific qualifications are attached to it. During the interwar period, women are less solicited than in the past but remain essential for certain viticultural tasks. Far from being a factor in professional training, agricultural home economics education encourages rural women to retreat to the domestic sphere. From 1945 to 2010, women's wages gradually catch up with their historical delay, and women are less systematically excluded from the management of vineyards. Despite these developments, gender disparities persist in terms of access to training, recognition of skills, and job sustainability. Overall, this work offers an innovative perspective on the evolution of vine culture in various French terroirs. It also contributes to the construction of knowledge regarding gender social relations, in which female farmers remain the "poor relations." Jean-Louis Escudier is a CNRS research fellow at the Montpellier Laboratory of Theoretical and Applied Economics, UMR No. 5474. Engaged in the field of economic history, his research activity aims to interpret the relationships between the production system, wage relations, and social protection. For several years, he has been developing a research program on economic gender relations with a focus on the wine industry. He is the author of several works as well as numerous articles in scientific journals and contributions to collective works.