A Brief History of Women in Agriculture from Early 20th Century to the Present

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"Gift for the Grangers: Promotional print for Grange members showing scenes of farming and farm life."

Although history shows that women “have been at the center of grassroots activities influencing, shaping, and growing farm organizations”… and that they have made “enormous contribution[s] to the survival of family farm agriculture and the growth and development of rural institutions and communities,” scholarship has largely neglected women’s roles in agricultural history.[1]

Sociologist Wava Haney argues that the cause of these histories neglect is due to systematic gender bias originating from national and local “laws and customs emanating from the patriarchal structure served to create farm women’s invisibility in the agricultural production record.”[2] Still, documentation of farm women’s participation in agricultural organizations serve to fill in interstitial gaps, demonstrating that women have significantly influenced social, economic, and political aspects of agricultural industry. In these formerly invisible gaps, we find that farm women created spaces to actively voice their concerns about agriculture despite gender barriers.

Women’s political participation in the agriculture industry has roots in women trading goods particularly in local markets.[3] By the 1910s, women financially contributed to their families by bartering goods and selling cash crops, including poultry, dairy, and garden produce in local, regional, as well as national markets.[4] Women’s participation in these markets was not only financially beneficial, but also created opportunities for fostering community networks, connecting social and economic life within their communities, and defining a separate sphere for women to connect with each other in rural communities.

Women’s role on family farms served to benefit the agriculture industry as the landscape of farming changed at the turn of the twentieth century, with the transition of family farms to agribusiness.[5] The diminishing number of Americans operating family farms was largely the cause of this transition. In fact, by the 1900s, about half of the United States population lived on farms. However, by 1920, thirty percent of the population lived on family farms. Furthermore, by 1980, only three percent of the population lived on family farms.[6] Therefore, to ensure the survival of agriculture, agribusiness leaders looked to women to assist farmers by participating in promotional advertisement and education programs.[7]

In terms of political organizing, women generally joined gender-integrated organizations or separate auxiliaries.[8] Often, these farm organizations were established by men, which welcomed women’s participation. Some of the earliest participation of women in farm organizations was during the Populist movement in the late nineteenth century. In particular, the Grange, The National Farms Union, and Farmer’s Alliance welcomed women, and in some cases mandated that the organizations offer official positions to women, allowing them to participate and mobilize to support farmer’s concerns about the financial crisis in agriculture and “macroeconomic policies, such as unregulated credit, farm-to-market transport rates, coinage, and international trade.” [9] Women were deemed important to these organizations because they were held as figures morally superior to men and as they had the ability to provide social cohesion and foster group loyalty.[10]Women supported these organizations by speaking at gatherings, writing letters to newspapers and farm magazines, writing novels, songs, poems, and essays. 

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"Grange in Session"

Still, some farm organizations excluded women from fully participating, claiming that “men are the producers; women help increase the demand for their product, educate the public about the farmers’ problems, and lobby for favorable legislation,” reinforcing patriarchal traditions.[1] Therefore, women split from these male-dominated farm organizations to form auxiliary groups. For example, female members of the Farm Bureau and National Farmers Organization formed a separate auxiliary group to offer women a platform to support and challenge the male mainstream leadership and help maintain the organization’s educational and social base.[2]

Today there are an abundance of volunteer, auxiliary, and women’s agricultural organizations in the United States, formed to expand the voice of women in the industry. Two organizations in particular, American Agri-Women (AWW) and Women Involved in Farm Economics (WIFE).[3] AWW is a Wisconsin based farm organization, founded in 1974 as a coalition of women’s organizations, including the California Women for Agriculture, their major concern is the well-being of the commercial family farm, and they are primarily engaged in education and networking. The Nebraska based organization, (WIFE) was founded in 1976 to address community concerns such as local taxes, social issues, schools, and roads, statewide issues (hazardous waste, taxes, education), and national issues by concentrating on lobbying for major farm policies.

While the history of farm women has largely been neglected by historians, it is evident that American farm women have made significant contributions to their farming communities and the agricultural industry at large. It is important to consider the California Women for Agriculture within the historical context of women’s participation in agriculture to recognize that in some cases how radical it was for farm women to demand recognition and even creating their own spaces when excluded from male-dominated farm organizations. Still, as you read the brief essays, documents, and see the photographs, consider why the CWA is important for understanding women’s roles in agriculture. Was/is the CWA radical, or is it a continuation of traditional means for organizing?

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Footnotes

[1] Haney, Wava G. and Jane B. Knowles. Women and Farming: Changing Roles, Changing Structures. Boulder: Westview Press, 1988, pp. 2, 342.   

[2] Ibid, pp. 3.

[3] Ibid, pp. 340.

[4] Ibid, pp. 3-4.

[5] Ibid, pp. 245.

[6] Rosenfeld, Rachel Ann. Farm Women: Work, Farm, and Family in the United States. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1985, pp. 3.

[7] Haney, Wava G., pp. 4.

[8] Ibid, pp. 358.

[9] Ibid, pp. 5, 359.

[10] Ibid, pp. 4.

[11] Rosenfeld, Rachel Ann, pp. 27.

[12] Haney, Wava G., pp. 360.

[13] Ibid, pp. 361. 

A Brief History of Women in Agriculture from Early 20th Century to the Present