COLUMBUS, Ohio – The first women to gain full membership into the FFA didn’t occur until 1969, after the culmination of a 30-year battle. To paraphrase from a Virginia Slims advertising campaign that same year which targeted women with a cigarette of their own, “You’ve come a long way, baby.”

Women have made great strides in the agriculture arena. Just 30 years ago, fewer than 200,000 farmers across the nation were women. Today, there are 1.2 million producers in 50 states. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, more than half of all farms in the country (56 percent) had a female producer. These female-operated farms accounted for 38 percent of U.S. agriculture sales and 43 percent of U.S. farmland.

When it comes to farming in Ohio, women account for 26,569 principal producers. One can thank the many organizations that work to support women on the farm. Ohio Women in Agriculture is one such program, spearheaded by Ohio State University Extension. Ohio Farm Bureau hosts Women in Ag events at many county extension offices. Ohio Agri-Women and East Ohio Women in Agriculture are groups that formed to empower women on the farm.

Ten years ago, Annie Warmke, a goat herder from Philo, Ohio, Carie Starr, a bison rancher, and another friend, decided to spotlight women in agriculture by sponsoring a 14-stop tour highlighting female-run farms, gardens and homesteads. That effort led to the formation of Women Grow Ohio, a collection of all Ohio women on the farms.

“Our goal is to help women take the things they already know and the resources to make a living in agriculture,” Warmke said. “The more women who are empowered by what they do, the better things are for all of us in agriculture, and in the world.”

It’s no different in Indiana. Women farmers dot the rural landscape. There are just over 94,000 farmers in the state, and close to 32,000 of them are women. More than half of those serve as the main producer. But it hasn’t always been that way. Much of that shift occurred in just the last decade. The number of producers and female-operated farms in the U.S. increased by roughly 25 percent from just five years ago.

Not far from Bloomington, sisters Doris Scully and Rhonda Schafer, along with their mother, Tresa Sips, work the landscape at Schafer’s farm, Sunset Ridge Berries & Blooms. Scully spends a lot of time in the fields and inside a tractor.

“It’s always fun to watch people’s faces when I pull up,” said Scully, a Hoosier farmer who grows corn, soybeans and cover crops on nearly 700 acres with her family. Most people, she said, don’t expect a woman in the cab of a tractor.

Scully is among thousands of women across Indiana helping to slowly erase the stereotype of farmers as older men in overalls. In the past, women have always been involved in agriculture, but historically that role has been behind the scenes. More and more, women are taking on a leading role on the farm.

“We have had a lot of years with this process of getting acclimated to women in agriculture,” Scully said. “And we have had a lot of good women to follow in this industry.”

Women 4 the Land is another organization that provides information, resources and networking opportunities for women. It can be found in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and several other states. The coordinator of Women 4 the Land is Heather Bacher.

“We estimate that women own or co-own between one-fourth to one-half of the farmland in the Midwest,” Bacher said. “Our goal is to connect these women with each other and with the resource professionals who can help them with their farmland management goals. We know that women are often uncomfortable because it has been a ‘man’s world’ sort of environment. The role women can play on impacting land has been there for much longer than we’d like to admit. But now we are trying to empower them to have more of a voice.”

Elise Koning is the seventh generation on her farm in Tangier, Ind. She raises lambs and grows Christmas trees with her husband on their Indiana farm. Elise said women have been involved in every farm in each generation.

“Why is it unusual in the first place to see a woman in agriculture when we’ve always been there?” said Elise, who is listed as the main operator on her family’s farm. She calls the women before her role models.

“It never occurred to me that this wasn’t something I could do,” she said. “It was the most natural thing in the world. I’m not a woman farmer, I’m just a farmer.”

Indiana Lt. Gov. Suzanna Crouch, who oversees the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, said women have been vital in keeping the family farm system in Indiana viable and thriving.

“(Farming) has been a male-dominated field in the past, but now we’re seeing women rising to the top and opening doors,” Crouch said. “Women are making their own opportunities to a certain degree and have come to the realization that they can compete in this industry.”

Crouch said she sees this as a benefit that helps the state keep more of its family farms.

“It’s important we continue to have family farms in Indiana that aren’t gobbled up,” she said, “and women can fill that gap and help keep the family farm system in Indiana viable and thriving.”

In Kentucky, women are a huge factor in farm management as well. The latest USDA census (2017) shows that 42,946 women farmed in Kentucky, up 36.7 percent from the number identified in the previous 2012 USDA census. Of that total, 33,550 were involved in making day-to-day decisions on the farm, 26,215 were the principal producers on their farms, and 12,648 listed farming as their primary occupation.

There are many conferences and programs in the tri-state area to assist women farmers:

The 24th annual Kentucky Women in Agriculture Conference will be held in Somerset on Oct. 15-17. This year’s theme is “Conquering Our Challenges.” To register, go to https://www.kywomeninag.com/annual-conference.

In Indiana, the Ag Women Engage Conference (formally known as the Midwest Women in Agriculture Conference) holds its gathering in Terre Haute in February. Contact AWE Conference Chair Elysia Rodgers at eberry@purdue.edu for more information.

In Ohio, OSU Extension offers Ohio Women in Agriculture programs to help women improve their quality of life by providing them with resources to make better business decisions while maintining balance with family and personal obligations. For more information, go to https://womeninag.extension.org/women-in-ag-programs/