When Statistics Canada released its demographic snapshot of agriculture following the 2021 census, there was a note of celebration for women.
There were 2.3 per cent more female farmers in Canada than in the prior census, the agency said. Over 30 per cent of the nation’s farmers were women. It was the first increase in 30 years, when the agency changed its methodology to allow up to three farm operators to be noted for the same operation.
The number of female farmers was rising and the number of Canadian farmers in general was slipping, StatCan reported. There were 3.5 per cent fewer farmers in Canada than in 2016, and the number of male farmers had dropped 5.8 per cent in the same window.
There were more women farming on their own and more women farming on farms with the most revenue.
At the same time, farmers in general were working more off the farm than in previous years and female farmers were almost nine times as likely to be doing so. The proportion of female farmers reporting off farm work had increased slightly more than it had for men.
Why it matters: The strain of trying to be all things to all people, on and off the farm, is a topic that often crops up at farm women’s conferences.
Women face challenges in the agriculture sector, virtual attendees of the Influential Women in Canadian Agriculture Summit heard from panelists in October. Some feel undervalued, outnumbered, dismissed or talked over.
Kimberly Cathline, research program manager of Niagara College’s Horticultural & Environmental Sciences Innovation Centre, is one of few women in her career path.
“I do the management of the research. It’s a science field, which tends to be dominated by men. So yes, I’m often the only woman in the room, even on research projects, and meeting with companies as well.”
Sabine Banniza, a professor at the Crop Development Centre at the University of Saskatchewan, recounted one meeting at which her comments were not acknowledged by other people around the table, but when the man sitting next to her repeated her points, “all of a sudden everybody listened up.”
Mel Luymes, executive director of Land Improvement Contractors of Ontario, has a similar memory.
She ran for a board position, making her case for the spot on her strong views about environmentally and socially sustainable agriculture. After she’d won the position, someone said, “of course you won, you played the ‘woman card,’” she recalled.
The internal impact of such moments can be a greater obstacle than the actual challenge of the job, attendees heard.
“There’s a few different levels of patriarchy, and one is the institutional,” said Luymes. “I don’t think that we (the ag industry) have the same institutional barriers, but we still have people in positions of power, in institutions, that may have an internal bias.
“Then we’ve got the patriarchy that I had in my own family’s table every day growing up, of how I was supposed to be as a young girl turning into a woman, on a farm. And then there’s the patriarchy that’s totally internalized.”
Cheryle Warkentine, co-owner and operator of Aletta Holsteins, has always been active in agriculture and was supported as a young girl growing up on a farm to be involved. She recounted a story of being dismissed in a financial meeting at which she had the far greater farm background, by a banker who “didn’t care one lick” what she said.
Strides forward
Panelists also noted some positives. Women today don’t deal with the same level of bias they faced decades ago. Both Warkentine and Banniza noted the improvements they’ve seen in the last 20 years, with less bias and more opportunities.
Advice to farm women watching the event was to build a strong support system and be open to receiving help in both professional and personal realms. That could come from a good work team, significant others and family, or other women in the sector, panelists said.
Cathline said that team should include people with different strengths than the woman needing support to “complement each other” and Banniza noted the role that male colleagues can play as allies.
The key advice was a warning against trying to do it all.
“We don’t have to be superwoman,” said Cathline. “There shouldn’t be an expectation that we have to take on absolutely everything and then still be able to give the very best of ourselves to everyone.”
“I’ve had to let go of some of the things my mom did,” Warkentine noted. “My mom sewed all our clothes; she baked all the buns, canned everything. My mom was a beast. She could do it all, and I’ve had to let go, that I don’t have to do it all like my mom did.”