Sophie O'Connor

PhD project: Mother nature: an intersectional analysis of how gender impacts environmental engagement among Kentish farmers

71% of the UK is farmland (DEFRA, 2022), and given that agriculture accounts for ~12% of the UK's annual greenhouse gas emissions (DEFRA, 2024), it is crucial that those in agriculture have a seat at the table when discussing how best to protect our environment. Farmers are increasingly involved in agri-environmental policy - but so far, farm women are not consulted (or even considered) when discussing how best to care for our environment. This is despite the fact that the bulk of farms in England are family farms, often co-owned (and increasingly run or co-run) by farm women.

As such, this project considers how ‘farm women’ (women who live on, own, or manage farms - but do not necessarily work on the land) in Kent engage with environmentalism, and what impact this has on the farm. Pilot research indicates that some farm women are already undertaking pro-environmental practices (albeit not through ‘official’ farming channels). By looking beyond the farm business and into the farmhouse, Sophie’s PhD hopes to expand our understanding of how farm communities can engage with the environment while balancing food security and business concerns.

Sophie is currently recruiting interview participants for this project. If you would like to participate or learn more, please feel free to email her. Importantly, interviewees do not need to formally work on the farm to be part of the conversation. Sophie is certainly keen to hear from female farmers, but she also wants to speak with women on the fringes of farms - farmers’ partners, mothers, daughters, and so on.

About the researcher
Sophie O’Connor is a Human Geography PhD student at the University of Kent. Her research explores how Kentish farm women engage with environmentalism and how we can use this knowledge to work with farm communities in the fight against climate change. Having partly grown up on a farm, Sophie is passionate about reconciling the tensions between agriculture and environmentalism.
Sophie joined the University of Kent in 2022 to study for her MA in Social Anthropology: Humanitarian and Environmental Crises, for which she received a distinction. She was also awarded the External Examiner’s Commendation Award for her MA dissertation, “From the Field: Kentish Farmers and Climate Change”. Before returning to the University of Kent to pursue her PhD, Sophie undertook a habitat management internship with the RSPB.
Prior to joining Kent, Sophie gained her undergraduate MA in History and Politics at the University of Edinburgh in 2016, then spent six years in corporate communications.
Sophie has been awarded a SEDarc PhD studentship, which is funded by the ESRC.

Sophie’s primary areas of interest are:

●     Environmentalism

●     Agriculture

●     Gender

●     Ruralism

●     Intersectionality

Sophie's supervisors are:

●      Professor Joseph Tzanopoulos

●     Dr Eleanor Jupp