Women in Agriculture

It’s a bright sunny day in the middle of August. Rolling hills and green grass surrounds you as you breathe in the fresh country air. Cows silently chew their cud while someone in the distance yells to herd them in the pasture. A tractor is rambling on bailing hay as it prepares for the next winter to come. The dogs bark in madness chasing the chickens as someone chases them to stop. The blue sky transforms into a watercolor of reds, oranges, and pinks as the sun begins to set and the dinner bell rings sounding the end of another day of hard work.
Most likely the picture you just thought of in your head was that of an ordinary, rural farm. Also the person on the tractor you probably perceived to be a man and the same for the person chasing the dogs and herding the cows. Yes, commonly in most cases that would be a true statement, but there is a chance that all of those people working on the farm could be women.

Shocking to think about, I know, but there does happen to be women out there who work just as hard as or even harder than men do on a farm or ranch. I consider myself to fall into this category of hard working women as I aspire to be in the business of agriculture.

Typically people wouldn’t picture women getting their hands dirty and actually working in agriculture. The reason for this is because years ago society stereotyped women only as to “Stay home Moms” , the cook and the maid. Although, the ideal view of women has changed over time and women are getting their rights just as much as men are, there is still some bias towards them. Society has grown to accept women in large businesses and women have proved that they can be just as successful if not more than men in that industry. Yet when it comes to getting down and dirty on the farm women just are not getting the credit they deserve. “For example, on operations where both husband and wife participate in running the farm, the management role of one or the other is disregarded, most likely the woman’s” Robert Hobbe states in “Special Outlook Report: Minority and Women Farmers in the U.S.” Even when people just ask me what I want to do when I’m older or what I want to major in and I reply, “I want to hopefully own my own business in the industry of goats and major in agribusiness for college,” they tend to have surprised look on their face. Just by the reactions I get as a seventeen year old girl with merely a dream of being in the business of agriculture, I can tell that the idea of women in agriculture has not been fully accepted.

I know and I believe that I would be perfect in agriculture and will be able to prove that I can work hard as a woman on the farm. As a child I grew up visiting my grandparents’ 540 acre ranch, practically living there, and for the most part still do. The memories I have from my childhood are of feeding the chickens and collecting their eggs every day, and riding in the truck with my grandpa as he yelled, “Come on, Come on!” trying to herd the cows. Just the small memories and experiences of being on my grandparents farm has made me love and enjoy the outdoors and agriculture.

I am driven to study and learn more about the business of agriculture in order to achieve my dreams. My goal is to start my own business in the industry of agriculture and be successful in doing so. I may be one of the few women in the business and my success could help prove that women can be equivalent to men in the world of manual labor working on the farm.