Women in Agriculture

[TSIPP]

My daughter is an ag tech, she’d have to have red clothing.

[sumdumguy]

Geez, what deviants!

[wmoebis]

All that’s true. Which is why women in ag aren’t hard to find. Usually it just requires focus to shift a bit. If you’re used to seeing the trees in the yard, you don’t always recognize how many trees there are. For a flora kind of analogy hah

But perhaps this ease of, overlooking is the wrong word but the only one I can think of right now, women is why they should be interviewed more. Call them Agvocates? Sure, if that’s what they do, but many don’t. Most of us just farm and work, we don’t go out and constantly look for ways to promote ag.

Being a woman in the ag industry is a funny thing. The farmers I talk to regularly support and endorse their wives and their daughters (and yes, their mothers as well) for how skilled and competent they are on the farm. Yet... they seem surprised when they run into other women with similar skill sets. That surprise is enhanced if the woman isn’t working with a man. And in most cases I do just consider it surprise. Women just aren’t the first thing that comes to mind when they think of employees or employers in the industry - and that doesn’t just apply to men either, female farmers are just as likely to react similarly. It takes them a few seconds for it to sink in and then the women just become part of the everyday and are no longer considered “women in ag”, we’re just another farmer or worker. Which is great, but also why sometimes people struggle to think of women in ag, because we’re just ordinary daily occurrences.

I don’t know what sort of project this photographer is working on but it would be interesting if they just chose a location and worked out in a circle. Stopping at every farm yard and enquiring if a woman lives and/or works on the farm, either family or employee. They may be shocked with the results they get - however I’m sure none of us on here would be.

You are one of the most well rounded and knowledgeable people never mind woman in AG I've met. You are living the true farm life and AG industry. I vote for you. But most of all just keep being you!