Mapping Gendered Ruralities

The conventional picture of gender relations in rural places is that of a traditional, masculine social fabric. In this article, we challenge this understanding of the rural. Using three methodological approaches (quantitative, discursive and narrative), we test the hypothesis that there is an ongoing femininization of the rural, which is concealed by society’s focus on the masculine rural. We conclude that each method can give important, but not necessarily sufficient, information to answer such a process-orientated question. This methodological triangulation demonstrates the complexity of gendered rural spaces. The quantitative (map-based) analysis shows a gendered geography, the media analysis unpacks how gender is spatialized and the interviews show how space is gendered.