REGINA – A Saskatchewan woman is celebrating women behind the wheel of combines and other heavy machinery this harvest season with a movement that’s getting traction online.
Tiffany Martinka started #Womenofharvest15 after telling her employer about the increasing number of women working out in the field.
She went a step further to show them, with the help of women across the country who have been posting pictures of themselves farming.
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“I wanted to see pictures of the women getting dirty out in the field! Running the combine, running the grain cart,” she explained Tuesday. “There’s pictures coming in with women with six-month-old babies combining with them, there’s one photo of a women 31-weeks pregnant baling.”
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In Canada, we’re seeing more and more women working out in the field, but according to the latest numbers from Statistics Canada men continue to make up the majority of operators on the farm.
In 2011, women made up one-quarter of farm operators in the country at 27.4 per cent, while men made up the remaining 72.6 per cent.
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Amber Fletcher, a gender sociologist at the University of Regina, said there’s a variety of reasons for the gap.
That means men are more likely to identify as a farmer than women, even if they contribute to the same extent.
The vice-president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, Todd Lewis, said they are seeing more women operating heavy equipment across the province and there’s no reason that number shouldn’t continue to grow.
“I just think there’s perception I don’t think it’s barriers,” he explained. “It just takes some training and they are totally capable of running any farm equipment.”
#womenofharvest15 is helping women own that identify and they’re doing it with pride.
“I’m so inspired by them and I think farm women are some of the strongest women I know,” said Martinka.
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