In Ireland, family farming retains enormous ideological and cultural significance. As a social form it is one of the last preserves of male dominance in which women's contributions and concerns are largely overlooked. This book breaks new ground as the first major study of Irish farm families in which women are the focus of attention. Little is known of how gender relations actually work themselves out within farm families, or of farm women's understanding of their situation, but even a casual observer would conclude that Irish farm women are not without influence. This volume reveals how contemporary farm women experience life on the family farm (often through their own voices) and how they have managed to create their own spheres of influence, despite their apparent unequal status and invisibility in the male world of agricultures. This study not only makes farm women's subordination explicit, but in discerning the sources and force of their influence within and outside the farm family, it offers a challenge to existing explanations of the evolution of Irish rural social structures. It also suggests that feminist theories of the family need to pay closer attention to the mother's influence on social reproduction.

In Ireland, family farming retains enormous ideological and cultural significance. As a social form it is one of the last preserves of male dominance in which women's contributions and concerns are largely overlooked. This book breaks new ground as the first major study of Irish farm families in which women are the focus of attention. Little is known of how gender relations actually work themselves out within farm families, or of farm women's understanding of their situation, but even a casual observer would conclude that Irish farm women are not without influence. This volume reveals how contemporary farm women experience life on the family farm (often through their own voices) and how they have managed to create their own spheres of influence, despite their apparent unequal status and invisibility in the male world of agricultures. This study not only makes farm women's subordination explicit, but in discerning the sources and force of their influence within and outside the farm family, it offers a challenge to existing explanations of the evolution of Irish rural social structures. It also suggests that feminist theories of the family need to pay closer attention to the mother's influence on social reproduction.

Despite the growing interest in olive oil, most people know very little about what it is or how it is made. This book provides a comprehensive treatment of olive oil from the tree to table, from a molecular and personal perspective. Growers often do not know what is happening at a molecular level or why certain practices produce superior or inferior results, for example, why adjusting a temperature rewards them with winning oils. This book aims to provide some of the answers as well as the importance of the chemicals responsible for the flavour and health effects. Readers will also get a deeper understanding of what makes an extra virgin olive oil authentic and how scientists are helping to fight fraud regarding this valuable commodity. Including anecdotes from growers of olives and producers of oils, the authors provide an accessible text for a wide audience from food science students to readers interested in the human story of olive oil production.