No Woman's Land? Gender and generational dynamics in thirty young women's life histories in the agro-food sector in Sardinia, Italy

The paper traces the intertwining of the biographical and career courses of a sample of 30 female entrepreneurs in the agro-food sector in Sardinia,whose life histories were collected between 2014 and early 2016. In a global context of regeneration of the peasant sector (Van der Ploeg J., 2008), involving to a large extent the younger cohorts who are entering in an increasingly precarious labor market, the récits de vie of these women who chose an unusual professional path, also in gender terms, appear very significant. The key event that marked a “before” and “after” in their life course is the generational transition from the background family to the farm, because the way they handled this step has been crucial in the process of definition of their aspirations and their personal and professional future. The link between timing (“When you joined the farm?”) and the strategic meaning of this choice (“What project did you have in mind, as a young woman?”) led to outline five trajectories: 1) A linear transmission of the farm's core, from father to daughter; 2) A Back-to-the-land movement, coming from other training and professional careers; 3) A generational leap, aimed at recovering a grandfather's farm and at re-stitching a parental plot which has been suspended for a long time; 4) A biographical and career break, based on an ex-novo project in the agro- food sector, completely detached from the family background; 5) A multiple presence among different segments of the labor market, in constant search of a sustainable balance between business duties, other professional roles and private life.