Search Underway for Female Farming Dynasties

In the past, farm lineage focused on men. Sons generally inherited the farm, while daughters moved to their husbands’ farms. Today, 35% of all U.S. producers and 41% of beginning farmers are women, according to the USDA. As farmer demographics evolve, so, too, does the genealogy of farming.

Illinois Agri-Women (IAW) celebrates matriarchal lineage on the farm with a new project, Generations of Women in Agriculture Across America (GoAg3). The group is conducting a nationwide search for female farm-family dynasties that include at least three living generations of women involved in or retired from production agriculture or agribusiness. 

Applications may be submitted at illinoisagriwomen.org/goag3 through Jan. 31. Three families will be honored and presented monetary awards at a luncheon on Aug. 26 in Normal, Illinois, during IAW’s Generations Educational Conference.

A New Sense of Purpose

IAW member and retired farm manager Penny Lauritzen said the project stemmed from the group’s Women Changing the Face of Agriculture (WCFA) initiative, which includes a conference for young women interested in ag careers. “We’ve been doing WCFA for 14 years, and some of the girls who went through the program are coming back as mentors,” Lauritzen said. 

Now she is focusing on GoAg3. “I turn 75 in January, and talking to new people and acquiring these generational histories has given me a new sense of purpose,” she said. It has also given her cause to reflect on her own family: Her mother was an integral part of the farm and initiated the concept of “farm to fork” in her area, her daughter is a producer, and her granddaughter is studying ag in college.

Evolving Roles

Lauritzen has witnessed the evolution of women’s roles in ag. “We couldn’t be in FFA in high school,” she said. (Girls were granted membership in 1969.) She joined 4-H, which had separate clubs for boys and girls. “I had to join the boys’ club, too, because girls couldn’t show steers at the fair, and I grew up working steers,” she said. “But FFA was where the leadership opportunities were at.” 

Two generations later, Lauritzen’s granddaughter earned FFA’s most prestigious award, the American FFA Degree.