As Rebecca Tuxhorn was planning her dissertation while in the sociology department at Southern Illinois University, she was inspired by memories of growing up on her family’s farm.

Her dissertation – which she successfully defended earlier this year – examined how women farmers navigate the gender structure of farming. Tuxhorn is currently a sociology instructor at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond.

She grew up in a farm family. Her parents lived in town, but after her grandfather was killed in farm accident, her dad bought the farm in central Illinois from her grandmother. “Being a girl, I did things like paint fences while my brothers were driving tractors. I never really questioned that arrangement.

“Eight years ago, I began dating someone. He wanted to farm. He thought since I grew up on a farm, I would know what I was doing, so he stuck me on a tractor. All the research I found talked about farm women, farm wives. It didn’t talk about women farmers. That intrigued me.”

To find women to discuss their experiences, Tuxhorn turned to Facebook groups for women in farming. She talked with 32 women in 11 states; one was from Italy. Twenty seven of the women are white and five are Black.

She was able to find a variety in size and type of operations. “They had to identify as a woman farmer. I had a mushroom farmer, corn and soybean farmers, an alpaca farmer. Others raised goats or cashmere sheep. Some of the women ran CSAs (community supported agriculture).”

Tuxhorn asked the women about their operations, how satisfied they were with their farming careers, if they had mentors and how they learned what they needed to know about farming. She questioned them about any barriers they’d encountered related to capital, if they felt accepted as farmers, what they liked and disliked about it and the division of labor on the farm. She asked if they agreed or disagreed that farming is a male-oriented profession and if they ever felt discriminated against.

“I believe women are looking to be seen as being as competent as men,” Tuxhorn explained. “One of the biggest barriers I found through interviews and research is machinery. If you’re not trained on the machinery, it can be very intimidating. This came up over and over – this connection to machinery.

“If you don’t know about machinery and you can’t operate it, that automatically limits you on the size of your operation. Most men learn how to farm from their dads. A majority of the women didn’t learn from their dads. They learned instead through internships, books or the internet. It’s so important to know women are just as capable as men. That message came through loud and clear.”

The women reported they had encountered some barriers in trying to access capital. Women don’t have the background in farming and that lack of background and experience impacts their ability to secure financing, she said. “You can’t just start farming, you need capital. One of those barriers was a lack of previous experience. The boys will be the ones inheriting the farm and will be the ones who learn how to farm. This lack of experience meant they needed to finance through sources other than farm loans and grants.”

None of the women Tuxhorn interviewed were able to access funding from the USDA. One woman told her if you’re not looking for a loan for conventional agriculture, they don’t know what to do with you.

Many of the women said decision making on the farm was pretty much equal. Not all of the women are married and for some who are, it is their operation and the husband works outside the home. In conventional farming situations, the women didn’t seem to get as involved in decision making, Tuxhorn said. Some said they had no input at all.

Some of the women she interviewed had a farm background while others did not. As for why those with no farm background opted for agriculture, Tuxhorn said, “You have a connection with the soil. I talked with a Black woman in her 20s. She grew up in the city. Her mother was murdered. Farming was a healing process for her. She connected with her mother through the soil. Black urban gardening was a healing process for her. People find the occupation and they fall in love with it.”

Chris Wienke served as Tuxhorn’s dissertation chair. He is an associate professor and undergraduate director in the sociology department at Southern Illinois.

“I was very surprised at the class and educational characteristics of the samples,” he noted. “Well over half (of the women) were college educated. They had previous professions and turned to agriculture. They chose farming over the other options they may have had. I don’t know if that’s the same for men (in farming).”

Women who break boundaries in a male-oriented field have to present themselves as being better than men, Wienke said. Research such as Tuxhorn’s may make people more aware of the situations women are facing, he added.