After working for seven years in Mississippi, I moved back to Kentucky in 1981 and one of my first producers meetings was a memorable one in Bowling Green. An older gentleman, who worked as a pharmaceutical representative, was a jovial guy but, perhaps, a bit out of touch. As he plied his wares, a woman asked him a question about deworming cattle. He probably meant no harm but he said something that implied that she might have her husband take care of that. Whoa boy, the lady stood up and calmly said “Mister, I own a hundred head of cows and I am capable of making my own decisions”. My gentleman friend was thoroughly embarrassed and, although he apologized profusely, it was “message delivered”.
That might have “played” in Mississippi where the cattlemen’s association at that time had a separate group for women – called the “Cowbelles” but as Bob Dylan sang, “the times they are (were) a ‘changin’”.
When I studied vocational agriculture in Tennessee (in the early ‘60s) it was all boys, except when we elected a “sweetheart” for the yearbook pictures. By the time I enrolled in graduate school at UK in 1970, we had several female students in our animal science classes. They were exceptionally good students, too. No logical reason why they wouldn’t have been but it did represent change.
Let me say this right now: I was country as country could be, but I was (and still am) proud of this change in the “farming landscape”. Two of the largest farm owners in our community when I was growing up was “Aunt Retta” and “Cousin Martha”. They had a lot of pride in the land and lifestyle of their “fathers”.
Now, let’s fast-forward to the present. Eighty-one percent of the students majoring in animal science at UK are women. Ladies have taken to agriculture like “ducks to water” and, let’s be honest, some of the males need to turn it up a notch. When we’ve hired folks to work in our beef IRM programs in recent years, we have looked for the best people that we could find. We hired people with names like Alison, Jerene, Jennifer, Lori and Blair! These folks, along with several men, will always be associated with these successful programs.
Our land grant universities are producing a lot of top notch agricultural graduates that are women and they are being very successful in the workplace. The U.S.D.A. estimates that one-third of the U.S. farmers are women. Why was it ever thought to be a novel idea for women to be active in leadership roles in agriculture? The University of Kentucky has the finest group of Extension Agents for Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) in the United States and one-third of our ANR and Horticultural agents are women. I doubt that number will ever decrease.
Sometime ago I was completing some forms that wanted to know about our efforts for diversity and asked if we had any programs for women and minorities. Well “Hello Pete”! All of our programs are for everyone. Is separate ever really better. Many of our specialists, agents and coordinators are women and the level of female participation in our “Master” programs has grown steadily. We have 540 women Master Cattleman graduates and probably a third of our Master Grazer participants are female, too.
Some men still might not be sure how to interact with women in an area that a generation ago was dominated by males. I think the answer is simple – treat them with the same level of professionalism and respect that you would (or do) want accorded to your daughters – nothing less. I just wish that “Aunt Retta” and “Cousin Martha” could see us now.
Source: Dr. Roy Burris, Beef Extension Professor, University of Kentucky