At the Farm GateWomen in Farming: New to the Narrative, Not the Work
Grandma never questioned butchering two chickens for lunch before church. She cleaned, cut, breaded and partially fried the ultra-fresh poultry, which finished baking in the oven while the family of six attended worship.
Holy chicken.
It’s almost Mother’s Day. I love Sunday dinner out. And the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for the first time ever named 2026 the International Year of the Woman Farmer. In reality, female farmers aren’t a new phenomenon. The industry is just finally talking about it out loud.
On both sides, my family tree is rooted in farming, and I’m blessed that both my grandmas – a fresh 88 and almost 89 – still can coherently share about their careers on the farm. Today, my mom farms, I farm, and more exciting yet, the fourth generation (the oldest now 20 studying agriculture in college) has grown to know two generations of grandmas and their quiet impact on agriculture as partners with the men in their family businesses.
The narrative used to frame a women’s farm labor as “just helping.” Yet, their husbands will attest these ladies would disk fields, sort and load hogs, locate field tiles, unload racks of hay, fetch parts, market crops, manage the farm financials, sign into debt, pay the taxes and elevate ear corn into the wire crib. They managed massive gardens that fed the family on summer evenings and year-round through preservation.
Meanwhile, they raised farm kids inspired to enter the same business. With children in tow for farm duties, my mom and grandmas packed lunches for the entire family, feeding hearts and minds with life lessons as much as bellies with nutrition during a hard day’s work.
I don’t see us returning to the era of buying 100 straight-run chicks, butchering half for meat and raising half for selling eggs. But our farm’s ownership by gender is a 50/50 split – Mom, Dad, my 40-something brother and I – all working full-time, pulling the occasional 90-hour weeks and collectively operating, managing, decision-making, succession planning, turning wrenches and respecting the talents each brings to the table, both in the conference room and at family dinners.
The team mindset and collaborative approach support farm continuity, community, harmony and the motive to live values, not just list them. Communally, we create a culture that has the next generation – both males and females – welcome and wanting to belong. That kind of narrative endures.
About the author: Joanie Stiers farms with her parents and brother in west-central Illinois, where they grow corn, soybeans and hay, raise beef cattle and operate side businesses related to the family operation.