Barn & Soul Podcast: Episode 23- Women, Wives, and the Working Farm

🎙 Barn & Soul Podcast - Where farming meets heart, history, and a mission to preserve the past for a more sustainable future. Episode 23-  Women, Wives, and the Working Farm

This week, we’re shining a light on the women who built, ran, and quietly revolutionized small farms across America — from the 1800s to today. From home demonstration agents and “farmerettes” to modern conservation leaders, this episode explores how women’s invisible work shaped the backbone of rural life.

Kendall shares some history, the hard numbers, and a personal reflection on how Dalby Farm’s mission was transformed in the early 2000s by her mother — and how that legacy continues today through her own work and ventures.

💚 Highlights include:
• The “triple burden” of women’s agricultural labor
• The Women’s Land Army and its wartime impact
• Why female farmers are the fastest-growing group in U.S. agriculture
• The women who turned care into curriculum — and legacy into action


📚 Resources & Bibliography
-USDA NASS (2022). Census of Agriculture: Female Producers (Highlights PDF). https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Highlights/2024/Census22_HL_FemaleProducers.pdf
-USDA NASS (2022). Census of Agriculture - general portal and demographic tables (producers, gender, age, and farm characteristics).
https://www.nass.usda.gov/AgCensus/
-NIFA / USDA. Cooperative Extension History (Smith-Lever Act, 1914). 
https://nifa.usda.gov/about-nifa/what-we-do/extension/cooperative-extension-history
-Pilgeram, R. (2022). Women, Race and Place in U.S. Agriculture. National Center for Biotechnology Information (PMC/NCBI).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9361245/
-Penn State University (2024). Coverage of the “triple burden” of invisible labor as a major stressor for farm women. (Available via Penn State News - search “triple burden farm women Penn State.”)
Núñez, P. G. (2020). 
-Rural Women’s Invisible Work in Census and State Records: Recognition and Visibility. Land, 9(3), 92.
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/3/92
-Library of Congress. Farm Life Collection and Women’s Land Army exhibits - photos, diaries, and primary documents on women’s farm labor during WWI and WWII.
https://www.loc.gov/collections/
https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2018/03/world-war-i-the-womens-land-army/
 “To the Rescue of the Crops: The Women’s Land Army During World War II.” Prologue Magazine, Winter 1993.
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1993/winter/landarmy.html
-National Agricultural Library (USDA). Home Demonstration Work under the Smith-Lever Act (1914) 
https://www.nal.usda.gov/exhibits/ipd/apronsandkitchens/items/show/42
-Women Have Always Worked: A Concise History - Judith Rollins and others (various editions, JSTOR / academic publishers).
-Farm Women: Work, Family, and Farm Life - scholarly monograph, multiple authors (available via Google Books and libraries).
-The Smith-Lever Act and Cooperative Extension - institutional histories and academic papers (see NIFA historical materials).
-“Women on the Farm” 
https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farming-in-the-70s/making-money/women-on-the-farm/
-The Livestock Conservancy. Conservation Priority List and heritage breed education.
https://livestockconservancy.org/

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