IS IT ONLY WOMEN’S WORK WHEN IT’S UNPAID?

TNLA was the first horticulture related event I attended as a student. In exchange for volunteering to help with the setup and breakdown of the main and side displays, the horticulture club received free entry to the event hall during the expo, and could take home the display plants at the end. As a club that is mostly funded by the number of plants sold during the semi-annual plant sale, this was an excellent exchange. Even more so was the opportunity I received to attend the “Women in horticulture” panel that occurred on the third day of the expo.  

Note the all green to match the plant theme

The keynote speaker Deborah Cole used her recently published book “She believed she could so she did” as the backdrop of her presentation. The book, comprised of the stories of 35 Texas women who lead successful companies, highlights the journey, struggles and mindset that women often find themselves in with positions of leadership. Overall, the presentation served a more motivational role than it did informative, but one thing that stood out to me was two slides near the end of the presentation comparing the sex split of women and men in agriculture. Women account for 36% of the country’s producers and 15% of all bank financing applications.

I distinctly remember thinking about the early days of America such as the 1700s, where colonists relied on small home gardens and the produce grown to supplement their diet. I thought of the 1800s where westbound settlers kept closely guarded kitchen gardens filled with medicinal herbs staple vegetables. Even in the 1900s gardening remained prolific as homeowners sought to enhance the look of their property with blooming flowers and bushy shrubs. And then I thought of how all these gardens were planted, cultivated and tended to by mainly women and children, for free. I wonder why when there is no profit to be made women are so often overrepresented in their field, but as profit scales, so too does the absence of women in positions of benefit. Even in areas where money is meant to take a backseat like in non-profit organizations do we see the same gender imbalance. Despite comprising almost 70-75% of the non-profit workforce, once “profits” exceed 1 million only 22% are run by a woman executive director or CEO.  

I don’t know if there’s anything that can be done to rectify this situation. Gender and racial disparities are often by design, with America having to play catchup to undo centuries worth of discrimination. But the same way you can’t fix a bullet wound with a band-aid is the same way you can’t un-monopolize an industry that has a built-in backlog of advantages for men. Without radical changes I don’t think we’ll be seeing an even split of women and men CEOs anytime soon in agriculture. Women can start new companies, work hard and break the glass ceiling, and become an inspiration for others, we are capable. But without purposeful and focused long term change, that will always be the exception, not the rule.

And I don’t think we’re ready to have that conversation.