Women in Agriculture: Fighting Gender Bias

By: Chelsea Metheny

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Women cannot drive a truck and trailer full of cattle. Women cannot operate a tractor to harvest a field. Women cannot make decisions that affect agricultural policy. Statements like these, according to women in agriculture, will make them boil with anger.

Is there still a gender bias against women in agriculture? For many female agricultural students, the answer is yes.

“I believe that women’s biggest challenge in the Ag industry is that we are being seen as less educated and less capable,” Holly Nequette said, an agricultural business student at Colorado State University. “Women are viewed as inferior to men in the industry, which is why they tend to only have desk jobs.”

Nequette has not only faced discrimination from fellow peers, but also industry leaders.

“I have had my peers say things such as ‘girls can’t back a trailer,” Nequette said. “I have also experienced this when attempting to apply for internships at feedlots and ranches.”
Victoria Scott, a recent graduate from CSU with a major in Biochemical Engineering and Soil and Crop Sciences, talks about her frustrations with gender bias in the workplace.

“I went from looking into a career in agricultural chemical sales to moving on to get my PhD because I had no female role models in upper level management positions to whom I could look for an example,” Scott said. “I knew that at least my opinion would be valued in a scientific community instead of being written off simply because I was a girl.”

Scott also explained that in the many field positions that she applied for, it was hard to land the job as a woman. “I have literally scouted hundreds of acres of soybeans all day long for pest and disease pressure, only to go speak to the farmer and have him ask for me to come back with my male coworker, same age, and same position.”

Gender bias against women farm operators has proved to be a national occurrence. There have been several lawsuits filed against the USDA alleging gender discrimination in the Farm Service Agency lending programs. The FSA is the government’s lending hand to the farm sector.

In the Love v Johann’s case in 2000, the plaintiffs were women loan applicants who were either not provided with loan applications, were denied an initial farm loan or received a loan but were denied subsequent loan servicing.

“In transcending previous stereotypes of supporting roles to their spouses, female farm operators are generally faced with many barriers to business survival and success. Credit is one of these challenges.” This statement was from a case study completed by professors at the University of Georgia that addressed the gender bias in federal farm lending.

First women cannot drive a truck and trailer, and now women cannot receive farm loans? So, what can women do?

“We have to be ready to stand up for ourselves. If we don’t, men are happy to include us in traditional jobs where gender roles are well defined,” Scott said.

In the past, women have been looked at as “farm wives.” They have been expected to cook, clean and take on such duties as bookkeeping and office management. Although most women in agriculture take on these duties regardless, women are beginning to take credit for an array of other agricultural entities.

There is no doubt that the role of women in agriculture is emerging as a strong force. According to a 2002 Ag Census, there are over 3 million farm operators working on the approximately 2 million farms in the United States. The census revealed that 27 percent of those operators are women.

Women are also listed as the primary operator of about a quarter of a million farms, and that number is increasing rapidly.

“I believe that women need to educate themselves, so that they can become leaders in the industry,” Nequette said. “We need to change the image of women in the industry.”

Programs like FFA, 4H, agricultural sororities and other collegiate Ag clubs are crucial to a young agricultural student’s education. Involvement in these types of organizations allows young women to step up into leadership roles, and have an active voice in agriculture.

Approximately 41 percent of FFA members are women, and women also hold more than 50 percent of state leadership positions, according to FFA statistics. This is an encouraging fact to the growth of women in the Ag industry.

“Women need to establish their own ‘good ole’ girls club’ where we can call any of our female colleagues from the Ag family back in college and get an inside tip on the job." Scott said. "Men do it all the time.”