International women’s day is March 8, so at Small Farm Canada we have been thinking about women in agriculture a great deal. In the 2016 Canadian Census of Agriculture 77,970 women were listed as farm operators equating to 28.7% of all farmers. This is up 1.3% from the 2011 census.
It is interesting to compare this to the stats of women being educated in agriculture. In 2017, at Ontario Agriculture College, 66.6 % of students identified as female. Digging a little deeper, the bias in data collection plus influence of historical information, really makes an impact, the census statistics give us a rather two-dimensional slice of the story.
Another part of the story may be that women have struggled with barriers of entry that many encounter and onerous biases that society has placed on them. Many have struggled to access credit and even so, women are now more likely to own their own land and sell their harvest directly to consumers.
Food systems, like Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) resonate strongly with female farmers as start-up costs are modest with good cash flow from pre-season deposits. CSA’s are often enterprises that are local, social and environmental. Is that small-farm one-up-woman-ship?
And yet another part of the story is that in-spite of being involved in agriculture since the start of time, the contributions that woman have made often go unrecognized.
Women continue, as they have for millennia, to have a profound impact on food production and provision worldwide. Small Farm Canada is proud to feature and showcase women in farming sharing their passion and commitment to agriculture, the land and their livestock. If you have a story you would like to share we would love to hear it. Reach out to our editor Julie Harlow, or reach out to tag us on twitter @SmallFarmCanada or use #SmallFarmCanada.
As noted at the top, International women’s day is March 8, be sure to post on social media to ensure the agriculture sector is well represented by including #IWD2021 in your posts.
Cheers to Canadian Women in Agriculture on International Women’s Day!