Bringing Home the Bacon: Women’s Important Role in Farming
By Tracy Taylor Grondine
As the old cliché goes, behind every great man, there’s a woman. The same can be said for agriculture, but with a twist. Standing beside most successful male farmers you’ll find a woman hard at work.
Women have always played a critical role on the farm. But now, more farm women are finding themselves in a new role: working to help support their farming husbands and the family homestead with off-farm revenue. They work as teachers, nurses, paralegals, and in many other professions that provide health insurance and other benefits, in addition to a stable income, so that their families can continue the farming business.
Take Farm Bureau member Becky Baldosser, a full-time registered nurse. She and her husband, Gary, operate a 2,150 acre grain farm in north central Ohio. From day one, Becky has worked off the farm. “I love what I do. I love my career,” she says.
But, says Becky, the main reason she works full-time off the farm is because it provides an insurance package and retirement plan. And with two growing boys, aged 14 and 11, that’s important. Her nursing career also affords the family the opportunity to take vacations and participate in extracurricular school activities.
While the Boldosser household income is split 50-50, it wasn’t always that way. At first, Gary farmed part-time and worked full-time off the farm. But a year or so into their marriage they decided he should fulfill his life-long dream of farming full-time. They made it work by living mainly off Becky’s nursing income for the first several years, while building up their assets.
Off-farm income continues to grow in importance across the entire agriculture sector. The average farm household is far more dependent on off-farm income than income generated from the farm. In fact, off-farm income has grown steadily to account for 80 percent of the average farm household income.
There are many reasons why women are choosing to work away from the homestead. But, say Farm Bureau economists, in many instances it comes down to a capital issue and the need for a regular stream of income to run the household.
And while many men also work away from the farm to help generate additional income, it is women who represent a growing share of off-farm revenue. Statistics show that 39 percent of women work off the farm compared to 32 percent of men.
In addition to working off the farm, women also tend to manage the farming business by keeping the books, ordering supplies, maintaining customer relations, developing marketing plans and overseeing many other aspects involved in running a successful family business. Becky Boldosser manages the farm’s accounts payable and receivable. “I handle the checkbook,” she says with a chuckle. Women not only bring home the bacon, they manage the farm’s business-side of getting the pig to market.
Becky says she would still work in the medical field even if her family did not rely on her off-farm income, she just wouldn’t do it full-time. Right now, she says, it comes down to securing a family insurance package.
“I wouldn’t trade the lifestyle for anything in the world,” says Becky. “There’s a lot of freedom with farming. A lot of freedom and comfort.”
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Tracy Taylor Grondine is director of media relations for the American Farm Bureau.
Focus is posted to AFBF’s web site at http://www.fb.org/views/focus/index.html
