The five experiences of women farmers

Many accomplished, hardworking and resilient women are found among the ranks of Canadian farmers, but up to this point, their specific experience hasn’t been deeply measured. A new study, “Expanding opportunities for Canadian agriculture by understanding the experience of farm women,” provides a range of insights into how the farm woman experience can be improved, which obviously can only benefit Canadian farming as a whole.

The study digs deep into what it’s like to be a woman in farming. Conducted by Farm Management Canada and CentricEngine, the research shines a bright light on the crucial roles farm women play in influencing farm success. It also pinpoints critical opportunities where more support for women could lead to a “transformative” industry shift.

Characterizing experience

The study found five main dimensions that influence the experience of women farmers. One of these, participation, “identifies the level and nature of involvement in farm activities,” explains Farm Management Canada executive director Heather Watson. Another, recognition and support, reflects how much farm women feel valued. Two others centre on the challenges and barriers farm women may face in more involvement, having a positive experience in farming and so on, and the nature of their relationships related to the farm business.

The most critical dimension is directly related to those relationships, being the degree of satisfaction farm women have with farm-related communication. From these five aspects, a corresponding distinct set of five patterns of overall experience emerge. (See the sidebar.)

Improving communications

Farm-related communications occur with a wide range of people and encompass long-term, annual and seasonal planning as well as day-to-day farm operations. The study found that the quality of communications that farm women have with others in the industry – family members, other farmers, service suppliers – has a huge impact on their experience. No two experiences are the same of course, and Watson points out that “some women have issues with only external stakeholders, while others face issues with only family members.”

To see how this directly plays out, we asked Pam Bailey, who served on the study steering committee and is vice chair of Manitoba Canola Growers, to share some of her experiences. Like many of her peers, Bailey moved to a new community and married into her husband’s farm family. “Not only was there a learning curve for the new job of ‘farm employee,’ but there was also the after hours time with his family – where often the older generation has more ownership on the farm creating a power dynamic – as well as learning basics, like where to order parts or who do I call about a specific problem,” she explains. “And with each of these big changes comes its own set of unwritten rules that the family or existing farm employees or neighbours already know.”

An easy way to help farm women with all of this, Bailey says, is to be more clear in communicating. This “actually will benefit everyone in the family or on the farm,” she adds.

The study showed quite a bit of bias in communication. That is, “in almost every instance, more than a third of farm women reported that being a woman posed a challenge” in their farming relationships. “Attempts to bypass women under the assumption that a man makes the decisions, condescending language and stereotyped expectations were all mentioned as challenges,” says Watson, “in having positive relationships with others.”

For her part, Bailey shares that she’s had “an unfortunate number of negative interactions in the last year” that support these findings, in the context of having started and being the president of a value-added farm business. “When my husband and I compare our daily interactions with contractors, bankers and service providers – sometimes with the same people on the same day – they can be very different,” she says. “Together and independently, we’ve both done things to improve these interactions to make things easier on our business.”

Indeed, Bailey’s husband has “had to have conversations with some of these people to remind them why they should be talking to me instead,” she explains. “And when he does have to do this, he must do it twice – often by email then again by phone – because they simply don’t treat our or his request with respect. It takes time out of both of our days to work around it.” Bailey adds that “of course, everyone has their days when they are not their best selves,” and “it’s easy to only see things from one’s own perspective,” but at the same time, “it is important to try to see things from someone else’s perspective.”

“If you are unsure how to be more supportive to farm women, simply just ask them.” — Pam Bailey

Bailey shares a frustrating specific experience where this concept broke down. A service provider had a habit of always calling at the end of his day, around 4:30, to get back to Bailey about something she’d emailed him about earlier. Often, she couldn’t take those calls because she was picking up their daughter from daycare. “Once I could call him,” she says, “he was out of the office for the day, and then I would email him either later that night or next morning, reminding him of daycare pick-up time, only for him to call again at 4:30 the next day and having the cycle repeat. Situations like that are tough when, from my perspective, if he called at another time of day as I requested, it would have improved the relationship – just a simple thing that makes a huge difference.”

Reflecting on the study as a whole, Watson says “we need to do better in creating a safe, encouraging, empowering and supportive space for farm women.” She applauds actions such as farming organizations making more of an effort to seek out and encourage women to take up leadership roles, but she also says “it would be great to create a national training program focused on understanding and identifying unconscious bias.”

For Bailey however, creating a better “space” is as simple as treating all people with respect, and treating them how you wish to be treated. “If you are unsure how to be more supportive to farm women, simply just ask them,” she says.