Abstract
In recent years, social farming has developed into an opportunity for income diversification
in the South Tyrolean agricultural sector. In the northern Italian province, predominantly women
farmers implement the provision of social services on farms. Starting from rural gender studies and
women empowerment-literature, we hypothesize that social farming promotes the empowerment
of the involved women. Accordingly, our study investigates the recognized impacts of offering
farm-based childcare services on three types of power: power to, power with, and power within.
In order to test our hypothesis, we conducted semi-structured interviews with seven women farmers
that provide childcare services and with four experts. The results show that the provision of childcare
services has enhanced the autonomy of women farmers and has had positive impacts on their skills
and competences. This activity has changed their social role in the community by revalorizing
rural lifestyles and by enabling the reconciliation of work and personal life for working mothers.
Nevertheless, women farmers have recognized some negative effects on their workload, and on their
interfamilial as well as other social relations. Finally, the study discusses the relationship between the
specific ethno-linguistic context in South Tyrol and the eects of the activity of childcare provision on
women farmers’ empowerment.