In Oklahoma in the 1980s and 1990s, suicide--not accident as previously assumed--was the leading cause of agricultural fatalities among farmers. Men were five times more likely to die by suicide than by accident. What was causing these men--but not women--to want to kill themselves? Ramirez-Ferrero suggests that the root causes lie not in purely economic or personal factors but rather in the processes of modernization. He shows how cultural and social changes have a dramatic effect on men's identities as providers, stewards, and community members. Using emotions and gender as modes of...
In Oklahoma in the 1980s and 1990s, suicide--not accident as previously assumed--was the leading cause of agricultural fatalities among farmers. Men w...