The Rise of Women Farmers and Sustainable Agriculture

A profound shift is occurring among women working in agriculture—they are increasingly seeing themselves asfarmers, not only as the wives or daughters of farmers. The authors draw on more than a decade of research to document and analyze the reasons for the transformation. As their sense of identity changes, many female farmers are challenging the sexism they face in their chosen profession. In this book, farm women in the northeastern United States describe how they got into farming and became successful entrepreneurs despite the barriers they encountered in agricultural institutions, farming communities, and even their own families. Their strategies for obtaining land and labor and developing successful businesses offer models for other aspiring farmers.

Pulling down the barriers that women face requires organizations and institutions to become informed by what the authors call a feminist agrifood systems theory (FAST). This framework values women’s ways of knowing and working in agriculture: emphasizing personal, economic, and environmental sustainability, creating connections through the food system, and developing networks that emphasize collaboration and peer-to-peer education. The creation and growth of a specific organization, the Pennsylvania Women’s Agricultural Network, offers a blueprint for others seeking to incorporate a feminist agrifood systems approach into agricultural programming. The theory has the potential to shift how farmers, agricultural professionals, and anyone else interested in farming think about gender and sustainability, as well as to change how feminist scholars and theorists think about agriculture.

Cofounder of the Pennsylvania Women’s Agricultural Network, Carolyn E. Sachsis professor of rural sociology and women’s studies at Penn State University. She lives in State College, Pennsylvania.

Mary E. Barbercheck is professor of entomology at Penn State University. She lives near Port Matilda, Pennsylvania.

An associate professor of agricultural economics and rural sociology at Pennsylvania State University,Kathryn Brasier lives in State College, Pennsylvania.

Nancy Ellen Kiernan is professor emerita at Pennsylvania State University. She resides in State College, Pennsylvania.

Anna Rachel Terman is assistant professor of sociology at Ohio University. She resides in Athens, Ohio.