YORKTON - Many may not be aware but the International Year of the Woman Farmer was officially launched June 27 at an event in Washington, D.C.
“The International Year of the Woman Farmer shines a global spotlight on women in agriculture, highlighting the challenges they encounter while cultivating change,” detailed the website. “Together we can help bridge the gender gap, paving the way towards achieving food security, gender equality, and sustainability goals for a brighter, more equitable future. Discover how this initiative empowers nations worldwide to enact changes to provide women the same access to land tenure, training, financing, and technology.”
Designated by the United Nations the designation is only symbolic, so it will not likely in part much in the way of actual change, but it does recognize that female farmers face different challenges than their male counterparts.
Often over the years the contributions of women to the farming operation while appreciated at the farm level have perhaps not been as widely recognized away from the farm gate.
In the days of my youth my mother was the one that tended to the yard and fed dad in the field. She did not have off farm work, but certainly stayed busy with a huge garden, canning, baking, cooking, looking after the chickens and a hundred other things she took on as dad rode the tractor, and I cleaned barns.
Over time the role of women of course expanded, making runs for machinery parts or fertilizer, driving grain trucks or combines, and simply being more directly involved in production.
Today they are just as likely to own the farm and make the decisions.
And, certainly there are far more women working in the broader farm sector than when I was a youth, or even since I began my journalism career some 35 years ago.
The evolving role of women in agriculture of course parallels a general trend of greater participation in most areas, but agriculture is a rather unique sector and will have its own challenges for women to find their place to fully participate as equals.
Having a year designated to mark the growing participation of women in agriculture is certainly a good thing as a way to focus some attention, and hopefully smooth some of the bumps in the path of women.
At the very least it reaffirms women have become equally successful in the agriculture field and are an important part of the sector which feeds us.
