Farm Women

Yesterday, I spent part of the day reading about the Centennial Development Project brief put out by the American Farm Bureau Federation.  I was lucky to participate in giving input at the Young Farmers & Ranchers conference in December, and I was eager to see what common themes came out of the conference, and what other people thought about where the Farm Bureau should be heading. 

One of the five major points drawn from the brief was getting rid of the Women's committee, or at least drastically changing its purpose.  I don't know how many of you have been to a Farm Bureau event, but I say it is about time!  Having attending 6 or 7 events in the last few years, the way older farmers, farm organizations, and even young farmers look at the place of women in agriculture truly disappoints me.  Women make up half of the Young Farmers in the Farm Bureau, but hold almost no leadership positions at the national level.  Many of the women want the positions, but can't find a way into the leadership.  Even the sessions at the Farm Bureau events are catered towards either men or women.  One of the recent conferences had a session about women and farm bookkeeping.  Talking to many of the farm women, I know we see ourselves having a much more active role in the business.

I'm not usually a big proponent of women's lib, but I began to notice how far our industry was behind the times when I was working in the mill.  Many of our raw ingredient suppliers would ask me if I had any brothers to run the farm, or if I was going to marry another local farmer in order to keep the business going.  I quickly informed them that I am capable of meeting the challenge of running the farm.  I couldn't believe that someone could see me as so incapable just because of my gender. 

The worst insult I received as a woman farmer was when I took my boyfriend to a county Farm Bureau event, exactly one week after he started to work on the farm.  We sat at a table with people I had seen at events my whole life, who knew my family, and knew about our farm.  When they started to ask questions about harvest, they ignored my responses, and quickly began quizzing my boyfriend.  He was at a complete loss and tried to defer to me, but the other farmers had absolutely no interest in what I had to say. 

I'm not saying that everything has to be equal for women, or that equality equals fairness.  I just want to be able to take part in the conversation, and have a place at the table.  If people within our industry won't take women seriously, how will the people in the greater community view us?  Human capital is one of the most valuable assets a company can have, so why are farmers throwing half of their resources out the window?