Time Use, Gender and Sustainable Agriculture in Austria

Available time—as much as available money—governs the everyday decision-making of individuals concerning their living space, consumption patterns and means of transportation. Time-use research can serve as an integrative means to encompass social aspects in sustainability research, to integrate a gender perspective in sustainability research and to enable transdisciplinary work. We show how we worked toward these objectives in the project GenderGAP. Here, time use is a crucial factor in decisions concerning production strategies on Austrian farms. Farmers aim to avoid longer working hours and less income than employees from other sectors. Technological change can diminish the workload of farmers, mainly in regions favorable to large-scale industrialized agriculture. Sustainable agriculture with a focus on mixed production and maintenance of cultural landscapes in a lively region should not place a greater burden on the farmers. If organic and small-scale farming increases the workload on women in a traditionally gendered working environment, there are two options for addressing the issue. Either farmers opt for less sustainable methods of production or cease agricultural activity entirely, or farmers opt to adapt to socioeconomic changes and find ways of producing for the increasing market for sustainable products with a new work organization that is attractive to young people and does not place a greater burden on farm women than on men.