#WomenInAg: An Analysis of the USDA’s Social Media Presentation of Women in Agriculture

• In Event: 308 - Section on Sociology of Sex and Gender Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 10. Gender, Work and Family: Session III

Abstract

While women have traditionally been underrepresented as farm operators in the United States, over the past thirty years, they have constituted one of the fastest growing minority groups in U.S. agriculture, going from 5 percent of all primary farm operators in 1978 to 14 percent in 2012. To draw attention to this trend, the USDA has engaged in a social media outreach campaign, using the hashtag #WomenInAg to construct an online dialogue about women in agriculture. In this paper, I conduct a qualitative analysis of social media postings using this hashtag that were subsequently featured on a USDA-hosted Storify, in order to better understand how the USDA is accounting for this trend. Drawing on literature related to gender and work, the history of agriculture, gender on contemporary farms, and demographics of women farmers, I find that, while in some respects, the vision of “women in ag” reflected in this Storify is gender transgressive, involving broken barriers and “open doors”, overall, this message was ultimately vague and muddled in the face of persisting gender traditionalism and a pro-business model of agriculture that upholds a socially and environmentally unjust, profit-driven, and commodity-based food system. Women should not be faced with any unique obligations to develop a more socially responsive food system, but it is questionable to what extent this “agribusiness” model offers women empowerment or even represents the full story when it comes to “women in ag”. Thus, I conclude by offering future research directions.

Author

• Carmen Rowe, Boston University