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In the Fields: Highlights from Conversations with U.S. Women

It’s funny to see how we’re so capable, but we have to go the extra mile and prove ourselves to whomever. And I think it’s admirable, what everyone is doing, and I think it’s really amazing. And it speaks out to the resiliency of women, because it’d be much easier to quit. But what’s the fun in that?” – Susanne^a VT

^aAll the quotes in this document are presented using pseudonyms.

Women have always been vital contributors to the success of family farms, but their work has often gone unnoticed.¹ Since the U.S. Department of Agriculture started tracking data on farmers’ gender in 1978, and later allowed farms to list multiple operators, women’s presence in agriculture has slowly become more evident.^2,3 Nonetheless, agriculture is still seen as male-dominated,⁴ and women face challenges being accepted as farmers.⁵ In the most recent Census of Agriculture, over half of U.S. farms reported having at least one female decision-maker, and women farmers accounted for 36 % of all producers and 41 % of beginning farmers.^6,7 With the number of women approaching half the farmer population, especially when it comes to beginning producers, we wanted to learn more about the everyday experiences of women in agriculture. Our team is composed by Maria Teresa Tancredi, 4^th year Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia and current AFT Research Fellow, her advisor, Dr. Jennifer Jo Thompson, and Dr. Gabrielle Roesch-McNally, AFT’s Women for the Land Director.

Between February 2021 and March 2024, we hosted a series of interviews and listening sessions with farmers across the U.S. Northeast, Midwest, and South. In this research, we primarily heard from farmers producing commodity row crops (e.g., corn, wheat, oats, barley, sorghum, soybeans, cotton, tobacco, forage, rice, and peanuts), as only 12 % of all American women farmers are involved in this important sector of U.S. agriculture.⁸ These conversations revealed both opportunities and challenges women encounter in their occupations.

What it Means to Be a Farmer

The first theme we explored during those conversations was what it means to be a woman farmer. Some participants reported being valued and well-accepted in their farming community. For example, Claire’s^a mother had warned her that “the people in the community may not accept [her choice to come back to the farm]”, but they “were both very very pleasantly surprised that that was not [her] experience.” In fact, she was welcomed and supported by many in the community. Yet, several women talked about how their farmer status was sometimes challenged. They reported that their identity as farmers was, at times, questioned by both community members and industry stakeholders. Paige^a (IA) remembered facing this issue, especially when she was younger. She recalled, “[Some of our chemical suppliers] knew I was writing a check, but still I wasn’t part of the conversation. We even had a loan officer that only wanted to talk to my husband.” This happened even though she had been farming with her father for years, and her husband had only joined the operation after their marriage. Others, like Joy^a and June,^a both farming in Maryland, emphasized the fact that everyone on a family farm is important for the success of the operation. They also talked about their choice to claim the title of ‘farmer’ over the more traditional ‘farmwife.’

Care Work

It takes the whole family to run the operation, for sure, but I don’t like to be called a farmwife, even though I am a farmer’s wife. I always tell people I’m a farmer.” – June^a MD

We also asked our participants to share how the work of caring for others impacted their role and involvement on the farm. This question was prompted by the awareness that women on farms are often the ones doing most of the care work for the family and the household.⁹ Many farmers reflected on the need to balance farming, childcare, and care for elderly family members. Consequently, they sometimes decided to work less “physically on the farm” (Alice,^a MO) and instead devote their time to caring for the family. In other instances, they found creative ways to have the children with them while working or relied on family members for help. Several women also talked about the choice to keep an off-the-farm job to maintain access to benefits like healthcare and retirement for themselves and their families.

Caring for others was also presented in a positive light. Some women talked about sharing childcare responsibilities evenly with their partners and not feeling pressured to take on more of that work. For others, caring for their children meant being more involved in the operation. Additionally, several women talked about bringing a new perspective through childcare. This often meant challenging some expectations around family priorities and encouraging children to engage in activities off the farm. As Dorothy^a (ND) said, “…we make sacrifices and stop the equipment to not miss out on things that are happening with the kids. And I think that that is hugely due to [me saying] ‘We are doing this.’” She added, “I have to speak up.”

Land Access and Succession

Finally, the women in our research were invited to share their experiences with land access and succession planning. This topic evoked feelings of insecurity and vulnerability for several farmers across generations. In many cases, discussing farm transition within the family was difficult and caused concern for the younger generation, who wanted to plan for the future of the family operation but couldn’t do so without clear succession plans. Conversely, the older generation was, at times, reluctant to retire, especially due to concerns about being the last farmers in the family. These women expressed a strong sense of responsibility to preserve the family legacy and maintain their land in agriculture. In some cases, those concerns were heightened by our participant’s gender. For example, some farmers were worried about their ability to inherit the family farm because it had traditionally been passed down to a male heir. Others felt excluded from land tenure and conversations around succession planning because they had joined the family operation through marriage.

These conversations highlight that women farmers still face disparities in the industry, but also show the many ways in which they are pushing back and making agriculture a more equitable place through the work they do every day. For more in-depth coverage of those topics and to learn more about our recommendations to improve the condition of women farmers, check out our three reports and The State of Gender Equity in U.S. Agriculture.

This research is part of a regional collaborative project supported by the USDA-NIFA, Award No. 2019-68012-29818, “Precision Sustainable Ag Coordinated Agricultural Project” (PSA-CAP): “A Cover Crop Network for Enhancing the Sustainability of US Cropping Systems.” Project Web site: precisionsustainableag.org and Award No. 2018-68011-28372, “Cover crops: The Cornerstone of Water Management in The Face of Increasing Demand and A Changing Climate”.

References

1. Samanta, A., Viswanath, S., & Tran, M.A.Q. (2022). “It is very much a man’s world: gender representation in agricultural policy and administration.” Handbook on Gender and Public Administration, Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 332–348.
2. Leslie, I. S., Sohn, I., Wypler, J., & Bell, M. M. (2019). “Relational Agriculture: Gender, Sexuality, and Sustainability in U.S. Farming.” Society & Natural Resources, 32(8), 853–874. DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2019.1610626
3. Joseph, C., Roesch-McNally, G., & Looser, A. (2023). “The State of Gender Equity in U.S. Agriculture” American Farmland Trust. https://farmlandinfo.org/publications/gender-equity-report/
4. Shisler, R. C., & Sbicca, J. (2019). “Agriculture as Carework: The Contradictions of Performing Femininity in a Male-Dominated Occupation.” Society & Natural Resources, pp. 32(8), 875–892. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2019.1597234
5. Ball, Jennifer A. (2020). “Women Farmers in Developed Countries: A Literature Review.” Agriculture and Human Values, pp. 37(1), 147-160.
6. USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). (2024). “USDA release: 2022 Census of Agriculture data.” usda.gov.
7. USDA NASS. (2024). “2022 Census of Agriculture Highlights. New and Beginning Producers.” usda.gov.
8. USDA NASS. (2024). “2022 Census of Agriculture.”usda.gov.
9. Rissing, A., Inwood, S. & Stengel, E. (2021) “The Invisible Labor and Multidimensional Impacts of Negotiating Childcare on Farms.” Agric Hum Values, pp. 38, 431–447 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-020-10162-1