More Women Returning to the Farm in Management Roles

Knowing that women approach business with different priorities can help farm and ranch families maximize their effectiveness in management roles. This was the theme of the “Making Room for Women Managing Family Business” workshop, presented by Jeanne Bernick, principal and market strategist with KCoe Isom, at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 100th Annual Convention. “We’re seeing more and more women come back to the farm – and all kinds of family businesses,” said Bernick. Today, women comprise 31 percent of all U.S. farmers and ranchers, run 14 percent of all U.S. farms and ranches, and own 30 percent of all farmland in the country, said Bernick. Forty-four percent of FFA students are girls. “Yet women are still less than 10 percent of senior executives at major agribusiness companies. But that’s changing,” she said...MORE