Women in ag are underestimated, according to a Brock University researcher

New book studies ag women in 13 countries

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Despite all the work they do on the farm, women aren’t receiving proper credit, according to Wendee Kubik, an associate professor of women’s and gender studies at Brock University.

Kubik studies farm women in 13 countries, including Canada, the United States, Australia and Zimbabwe. She co-authored a book last April, Women in Agriculture Worldwide: Key issues and practical approaches, with Amber Fletcher, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Regina.

Farm women do more work than they are credited for and put in long hours off the farm too, according to the authors.

Wendee Kubik.
Photo: Brock University

Women also experience inadequate access to resources and gender biases, the authors say.

But the amount of work women perform has a great impact on the ag sector, says Kubik.

“We argue that the work of farm women has changed in relationship to the dramatic changes facing agricultural producers, such as industrial agricultural production, climate change, privatization of market relations, globalization and the aging farm population,” Kubik told The Brock News.

More than 80,000 Canadian women identified themselves as farmers in the 2011 Census of Agriculture, according to Stats Canada.

And 58.8 per cent of female farmers completed post-secondary education compared to men.

Farms.com has reached out to Wendee Kubik for more insight into her research.