Remittances associated with labor migration have been hailed by many as the most direct form of development to rural migrant-sending areas of the Global South, but focusing only on the quantity of cash flows does little to contextualize how migration has transformed social structures in rural areas. Through a qualitative focus on divisions of agrarian labor and decision-making, this article illustrates how the out-migration of men from rural areas of the Philippines is challenging preexisting gender ideologies of agricultural labor. The article examines how wives "left-behind" by their migrant husbands negotiate forms of farm work and responsibility that are culturally prescribed as "masculine." While a number of studies have detailed how femalemigration can destabilize conventional gender roles-as housebound husbands are shown to take up social reproductive work often considered "feminine"-the impacts of male migration on the participation of housebound wives in productive farming practices has been less studied. This article presents several vignettes of stay-at-home mothers who venture into farming and it analyzes how these women interpret their own gender identity. © 2011 BCAS, Inc.

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labor migration agricultural labor rural area migrants remittance rural society gender identity Philippines migration