Triple Burden of Invisible Labor Major Stressor for Farm Women, Study Finds

By Jeff Mulhollem

Mental health challenges are a significant and growing concern for the nation’s farmers, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). As much as farming is often a family affair, programs and resources to support mental health in agriculture have focused on the primary producers, of whom nearly 64% are men. Women have always played a crucial role in agriculture, yet, Penn State Associate Professor Florence Becot said, their mental health and well-being — much like their essential contributions to agriculture — largely have been overlooked.

But now a team of researchers has found that farm women experience a “triple burden”: simultaneously juggling different roles on- and off-the farm, often handling the invisible labor of caring for their households, children and farms. Their new study, recently published in the Journal of Agromedicine, revealed a significant portion of stressors these women face are mostly invisible, such as the mental load of childcare, researching farm needs, working off the farm, planning meals, organizing medical appointments and more — in short, all of the things needed to make a household and farm run.

Becot, the Nationwide Insurance Early Career Professor in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, who led the study in collaboration with Shoshanah Inwood and Hannah Budge from Ohio State University, also found that the mental health of women in agriculture is often connected to raising children in the dangerous farm environment and how stressors vary based on the age of the children.

“Only in the last four or five years have researchers begun to amplify the importance of considering the mental health needs and realities of farm women. There is some evidence that farm women report higher levels of mental health challenges — stress, depression, anxiety and loneliness — than their male counterparts,” Becot said. “Our research sheds light on how children and childcare needs factor into the stressors experienced by farm women and their consequences.”

Mental health challenges were a common experience among the 68 farm women in three states — Ohio, Vermont and Wisconsin — who participated in discussion groups for the study, the researchers said. Becot added that these women’s experiences echo what they have heard from other farm women across the country through conversations and a national survey. The team asked farm women about their day-to-day routine, how they fulfilled their personal and professional responsibilities, and their quality of life.

Even though the team had elected not to directly ask about mental health, the researchers said the topic kept coming up, and the participants were very candid. Women in eight out of the 11 discussion groups volunteered that they had experienced depression, including pre- and postpartum depression and anxiety. In addition, farm women in all the discussion groups talked about the stress they were experiencing and the negative impacts on their quality of life. However, the women were also quick to say that they value their way of life and the ability to raise children on the farm.

Major sources of stress were connected to having to manage their multiple and overlapping roles, which often led these women to feel guilty about not doing enough or not being good enough. Challenges were heightened when they did not receive support from family members, as well as when they experienced challenges accessing and paying for childcare. The women also were significantly stressed about the possibility that the children could get hurt on the farm — a major concern given how often the children were on the farm worksite with them.

Lastly, the researchers said, despite the adage that life gets easier when children grow older, farm women’s stress and mental health challenges did not lessen as the children aged but rather shifted and became more complex. Farm women discussed how the emotional and social needs of adolescents are harder to fulfill than the physical needs of babies and toddlers.

Along with the group discussion, the farm women shared over 370 photos they took to show their day-to-day experience raising children on the farm. Many of these photos illustrated the tensions between the joys of raising children and the challenges farm women experience, the researchers said.

“This study highlights the implications of the lack of investment in farm women’s mental well-being and in childcare options,” Becot said. “Women play a key role in making sure farms are successful — as farmers themselves and as the people who traditionally do the lion’s share of invisible caregiving labor. Yet they do not have the resources they need. Policymakers have, however, taken notice. The Farm Bill currently being debated includes bi-partisan support for rural childcare provision as well as support for mental health.

Another major takeaway from this research was how eager farm women were to talk about their day-to-day experience raising children on farms, Becot noted.

“Our research team was planning on talking with 30 farm women and expected that it would take five weeks to identify women willing to participate in the research, but in just five days, 110 women signed up to participate,” she said, explaining that the team had to revise their plans to accommodate everyone who wanted to participate. “I specifically remember one woman who, when signing up to participate, said something along the lines of: ‘It's about time that someone asks about this topic. What it takes to raise children on farm has been ignored for too long.’”

Funding from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; the Steve J. Miller Distinguished Scientist Endowment in Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety Research at the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, which was Becot’s previous employer; and Ohio State University’s Presidential Postdoctoral Scholars Program supported this work.