Women breaking into agriculture —not just as farmers’ wives

Press, 9 June 1978, Page 13

Women breaking into agriculture —not just as farmers’ wives

Men no longer dominate the campus at Lincoln and Massey. In recent years, growing numbers of women have embarked on agriculture as a career. This year at Lincoln 30 per cent of students in one of the main first-year courses are women. Li MCE EARLY spoke to two of them about the prospects for women in agriculture.

away for the rest of the day. Obtaining a job on a sheep farm was not so easy. However, on the advice of a friend she wrote to Miss Elizabeth Richards, of Round Top (Hororata), and obtained work there. She liked working for Miss Richards. She found that as both were women they were able to work at the same level, so to speak. Miss Newton also found that a woman farmer tends to plan things better than a man. For instance, when Miss Richards wanted to shift a drill from one farm to another, they did not “burst their boilers” trying to push it on a trailer. The wheels were spiked with a crowbar; a tractor with forklift was brought forward; and, in seconds, the drill was on the trailer. Finding work on cropping farms is much more difficult for women students. As an alternative, Miss Newton worked on a poultry farm, but she found the work quite disagreeable, so she completed the last few weeks as a technician at Massey. Looking back on the practical work, Miss Newton feels that where dairy farmers are concerned, women are quite acceptable, probably because farm wives so often help with milking. “In the milking shed, you are equal, if not better.” Sheep farms are a different proposition in general. Very often the farmers keep the good jobs for themselves, and a woman finds herself opening and shutting gates or, if working in the woolshed, pushing the sheep up to the shearers. Miss Hughes, after leaving high school, worked on her father’s dairy farm for several months, then moved to Mid-Canterbury where she worked on two farms. She is already probably a student above the average. At the outset, she won a scholarship to Lincoln offered by the

Twenty-year-old Sarah Hughes, of Rai Valley, who is doing a Diploma in Agriculture at Lincoln, last week learned the principles of arc welding. Five years ago, the case of a woman working in the college workshop would have been most unusual. But that is not so today, for Miss Hughes is an illustration of the growing number of women embarking on agriculture as a career. The place of women in many courses is now well accepted at Lincoln, although it has yet to be fully accepted in some of the fields of employment. The path for the woman student in agriculture is not without its problems. For instance, they have to complete their pre-entry practical work — several months on three types of farm — in sheep, dairy, and cropping. When times are not good, economically, this situation poses its difficulties. And, added to that, not every farmer wants t 0... emplpy a woman. > But to the woman prepared to, persist, the prospects are definitely encouraging; for those who reach the post graduate stage, they are good. Miss Sally Newton is a post graduate student in the Plant Science Department at Lincoln. After leaving Heretaimga Col--' , lege, she completed her practical farming work and duly took an honours degree in,- Agricultural Science at Massey. Although she was not farming‘ born and bred, she had few problems with the pre-entry part of the course. A job on a dairy farm was easy to obtain. If anything, she considers women might be preferred to men, because they are easier on the cows. She worked on the dairy farm constantly — her time off was three hours on a Sunday. She had the freedom virtually of a manger, or at least a person in sole charge. The farmer helped her milk in the morning, but as he was a haymaking contractor he was

Canterbury Frozen Meat Company. There were few jobs she was not asked to do cn the sheep farms. One was drilling — piobably because the farmer liked to take a pride in doing it himself. Loneliness or lack of transport can be a severe handicap to a woman working in a new district Fortunately, being farm born and bred. Miss Hughes did not feel cut adrift, nor was she worried about not getting out very often. Winter, she feels, is the worst time, and she recommends others in this situation to join a Young Farmers’ Club or at least some district organisation. On both places she worked, Miss Hughes felt she was treated like one of the family. She did not mind helping in the home because often the farmers’ wives would help her with an outside task. Miss Hughes carried out a multitude of jobs. These included helping at sheaiing — “it couid be pretty exhausting at times” — carting hay, and digging post holes. Miss Hughes says that some farmers probably envisage the prospective woman employee as a strong, well-muscled, buxom lass who strides

around in gumboots. On the other hand, she feels that many women don’t realise that they must “get their hands dirty” and do some of the less pleasant tasks such as burying dead sheep. What are the prospects for career women in agriculture? For the post graduate like Miss Newton, the future does not pose a problem “because you start to make your own name.’* Once prospective employers read papers that someone has completed, they are not going to ask themselves whether

"S. Newton” is male or female. In short, the work that the woman is doing at post-graduate level is very close to what she will do later. For Miss Newton, there will be good opportunities, even without moving out of the district. Miss Newton says that already organisations iike the Ministry of Agriculture employ women tn the economics section, but she feels that it will take longer for women to become accepted in the advisory field. Women regularly go into the horticultural field; others go teaching at dis trict high schools. Should she marry a farmer this is an advantage for she may still be able to continue her career. But Miss Newton also feels that the barrier to the acceptance of women in agriculture is perhaps a little greater than it first appears. “For instance, if I married a man with .similar qualifications in farming, and we went to a district to take up a property, people would say: ‘He has gone farming.’ But of me they would say ‘She’s got married — not ‘they have gone farming’.” Miss Newton has been collating material on vari» ous women who have

attended Lincoln, and at a later date she will undoubtedly come up with some views or conclusions on the role of women in agriculture. For the present, she says: “I would like to see women in a position where they can make a greater contribution to farming, but I’m not sure what it is.” Miss Hughes is at a stage where her future in agriculture, has yet to be determined. She became very interested in stock while working on an Ashburton farm which ran a stud flock. Her interests

at present are stock improvement and animal husbandry. Any disadvaniages in being a woman in agriculture? “1 think that when you get married, any prospective employers are likely to think ‘that's it’.” Miss Hughes’s plan for next year is likely to be a diploma in farm management. Mr D. B. McSweeney, lecturer in rural education, is very pleased with the standard of women entering Lincoln to take up a career in agriculture, but he quickly points out that not every one is a success story. There are those who do become disenchanted during the preentry course, for a variety of reasons — the nature of the work, an unsympathetic attitude by the farmer, loneliness, and worry. What is abundantly clear, however, is that si far the women coming to Lincoln are above average for their age group. For example, in 1974 and 1975 the students completing their B Ag Sc (Hon) degree comprised four men and three women; in 1971, the figure was six men and one woman Only about 10 per cent of students get to the honours stream. but women seem to be more representative of their whole class numbers. Even though women are becoming a larger proportion of student numbers —last year, for instance, 30 per cent of students in the B Ag Sc. 1 course were women — it is not all plain sailing. They have to display those qualities of tenacity, fortitude, and adventure if they are to succeed. Two-thirds of them are city-bred, with little knowledge of farming, when they decide on agriculture as a career. And while the employment field for women might as yet not be as wide as that for men, the opportunities appear to be good. Mr McSweeney lists, in particular, field technology. “A woman field technologist should be every bit as good as a man, perhaps better.”

“A buxom lass in gumboots..