Increasing Rural Women's Leadership in Sustainable Agriculture and Community Development

Objective 1: Organize and support at least five groups of women in Nebraska to work for education and support for sustainable agriculture and community issues.

IMPACT supported four women's groups during the course of this project. Groups received financial support for group organizing, meetings, project work, and outreach. These groups include:

The Hay Springs Marketing and Education Group (previously know as the Hillary Clinton Club): This group formed in the fall of 1994 to learn more about marketing and financial skills of use to their family farms. They have since expanded to explore other issues including alternative crops and farm safety for children. Members range in age from 35-50, with most having very young or school-aged children. This group received IMPACT project support from 1994-1997. The Hay Springs Marketing and Education Group is located in northwest Nebraska. Although this group is no longer a part of the IMPACT project, members still meet and organize occasional activities for their community.

EQUAL (Enhanced Quality of Life): Begun in 1995, EQUAL is concerned primarily with education and experiences that increase the quality of life for farm women, their families, and their communities. The group stresses family and community leadership and education on sustainable agriculture. EQUAL's members range in age from 35-54, with most having older or grown children. This group received IMPACT project support from 1995-1999. Through education and networking, EQUAL members are finding ways to improve quality of life for themselves, their families, and their community. EQUAL is located in northeast Nebraska, and is still actively involved in IMPACT.

Kimball County Women: This group received IMPACT project support in 1997 and 1998 to learn about crop marketing skills and estate planning. The members ranged in age from 45 to 65, with grown children. This group was located in southwest Nebraska, and it is no longer together. However, members say that they may come together in the future to learn about other issues.

Country Edge: This group joined the IMPACT project in 1998, and received IMPACT project support in 1998 and 1999. The women in this group are interested in developing on-farm enterprises that will generate additional income for their family farms. They explored value-added crops and livestock and direct marketing strategies that can help them achieve this goal, and they received a SARE producer grant for their cooperative pastured poultry business. This group is located in southeast Nebraska. Members range in age from 30-45 with very young to school-age children, with the exception of one woman who is the self-proclaimed "grandma" of the group. This group continues to actively participate in the IMPACT project.

The women involved in these four groups accomplished a wide range of activities. These include formal and informal education on organic gardening, pastured poultry production and processing, medicinal and culinary herb production, vegetable and flower seed production, ratite production, bison production, financial management, grain marketing, management-intensive grazing, seasonal grass-based dairies, home-based businesses, stress management, use of the Internet, and cooperative marketing.

The women's IMPACT groups provided women with safe, supportive environments to learn and experiment together. This project was created because women farmers expressed a need to establish a learning environment where they could feel confident asking questions and where their concerns would be taken seriously. Most of the women in the groups married into their family farm operations. As 'outsiders' in the family business, these women said that they sometimes felt like scapegoats for difficulties faced on the family farm, which made it hard for them to suggest new ideas or ask questions. IMPACT participation helped these women learn about alternative, profitable farming practices and gain confidence in their abilities to put these practices to work.

Our survey work revealed distinct stages that the groups went through as they developed leadership and trust. These stages, described in more detail in the attached report, include:

Identifying a leader and forming the initial group. Women's IMPACT groups tended to form around natural, strong leaders. Members usually shared an initial, broad concern such as quality of life on family farms or rural community survival. The promise of funding and other resources provided a strong incentive to form a group.

Support: Providing support for its members was a critical role of each group. Support helped members develop their leadership skills and break through the isolation often experienced by women farmers.

Bonding: Groups needed between one and three years to explore various options before committing to large projects. They used this time to establish a strong level of trust, confidence, and group identity. Informal educational activities, such as field trips to learn more about sustainable agriculture, were an important part of group bonding. The women told us that, in the future, it might make more sense to offer groups small amounts of start-up funding early in the project, with larger amounts of project funding available after 2-3 years of planning and bonding.

Education and information sharing: All of the women's IMPACT groups engaged in self-education. Sometimes they sought outside information and speakers to meet their educational needs. Peer learning strategies, where group members shared skills and taught each other, were extremely important and highly effective for the groups.

Teaching others: Even before the groups were completely committed to a specific project or direction, it was important for the women to share their new knowledge with others in their communities. Through the teaching process, they increased their skills, feelings of support, and self-confidence and gained new respect in their communities and families.

Diffusing leadership: Once a group had developed a project and direction, it was extremely important for all of the members to begin to share leadership. The original leader needed to help others grow by creating a space where all of the members could become leaders. Without taking this step, the original leader was at high risk for burnout.

Termination or continuation: IMPACT funding ended in 1999. Three of the groups continued with varying degrees of formality. Some groups had funds remaining, programming planned, and additional grants in the pipeline. Others simply wanted to continue to learn together and support each other.

Objective 2: Provide opportunities for women to strengthen their abilities and willingness to take leadership on sustainable agriculture issues on farms and in communities.

The IMPACT project provided women's group members with a variety of opportunities for leadership development, including:

Planning and organizing group projects and events: This work provided the women with valuable hands-on opportunities for leadership development. Group members gained self-confidence through sharing the tasks involved in organizing events, such as contacting speakers, developing agendas, promoting and marketing the event, contacting speakers, and managing logistical arrangements such as food and facilities. Members of two groups developed their leadership skills by developing grant proposals for additional funding, including a SARE producer grant proposal. This leadership development strategy was most effective for groups that shared leadership among all of their members. Overall, group members felt that they developed leadership qualities through the experiences of trying new skills, more so than attending leadership seminars or trainings.

IMPACT project leadership: The IMPACT project required representatives of all funded groups to attend twice-yearly Steering Committee meetings. Group members who participated in these meetings made decisions about project funding and policy, reported on their activities, and shared knowledge with other groups. For these groups, Steering Committee participation helped them develop leadership skills. The groups in western Nebraska did not travel to these meetings, however, because they felt that they could not leave obligations at home. Some members of these groups felt culturally distant from the rest of the state and wished to focus their resources and efforts in their own communities. In retrospect, it was unrealistic for us to expect women, particularly mothers of young children, from western Nebraska to travel long distances for Steering Committee meetings, even with support for travel and child care expenses.

Leadership training opportunities: In 1999, the EQUAL group worked with NSAS to organize a retreat for all women in the IMPACT project. This retreat included a strong focus on leadership skills development. The Family Community Leadership (FCL) program was an important source of leadership training for the women's IMPACT groups. In 1996, several members of the EQUAL group participated in the state FCL conference in Kearney. In 1997, these women helped to design, organize and facilitate a mini-FCL conference in their community. In 1998, a member of the Kimball group attended this conference and shared what she learned with other group members.

Participation in conferences: The EQUAL and Country Edge groups participated in the annual NSAS Healthy Farms Conference. EQUAL members presented workshops at two of these conferences, and members of both groups served as conference volunteers. In 1998, three members of the EQUAL and Country Edge groups were delegates to the Second International Conference on Women in Agriculture in Washington, DC. Mary Rose Pinkelman represented the North Central region as a panelist in a workshop on, 'Sustaining Women Farmers in America: Work, Hopes, and Challenges.' Linda Kleinschmit participated on a committee that selected workshop speakers and conference delegates and developed the workshop content. The women applied for and received funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to attend this conference. EQUAL and Country Edge members also participated in the 1999 NCR SARE marketing conference in Lincoln.

Participating in exchanges with other women's groups: In 1997, the EQUAL group planned, organized, and raised funds for an educational exchange with women farmers in northwestern Massachusetts. Through farm visits and home stays, the women exchanged knowledge about sustainable farming, particularly grass-based dairies, and family farming issues that they held in common. When the Massachusetts women visited the EQUAL members' farms, the Nebraska women were surprised at how much they knew and were able to explain about their farming operations.

Leadership positions in other organizations: As the women gained confidence and leadership skills within their groups, they extended those skills into their local communities and the sustainable agriculture movement. From 1997 to the present, EQUAL member Linda Kleinschmit has served as Nebraska's representative on the board and planning/steering committee of Community Alliances for Interdependent Agriculture (CAIA), which was previously the national Integrated Food and Farming Systems (IFFS) Network's Steering Committee. She is the only woman farmer represented on this board. Members of two women's IMPACT groups ran for the NSAS Board of Directors, and one of these women was elected. A member of the EQUAL group ran for her county Extension Board, and a Hay Springs Marketing and Education group member won a position on her district school board.

Objective 3: Improve women's ability to access and use existing agricultural outreach programs of Nebraska Cooperative Extension, and increase women's activity in statewide networks for sustainable agriculture.

The groups had different experiences with Nebraska Cooperative Extension. Some groups found that Extension was extremely helpful, and they increased their participation in Extension programming. In other cases, the local Extension office was unresponsive and uncommunicative. One group felt that they were treated with disrespect with their local Extension Educator, who turned them down when they asked for help. This group had better luck with and Extension Educator from a different county. Some groups had better luck with the Extension home economist than the agricultural educator.

All of the women's groups included local Extension Educators as consultants or advisors at some level. The Kimball County Women and Country Edge worked with Extension to plan workshops on marketing and business development. EQUAL worked closely with their Extension Home Economist on leadership development activities, and has involved her in their annual Women's Wellness Day.

Efforts to involve women in existing agricultural outreach programs of Nebraska Cooperative Extension were marginally successful. Members of EQUAL attended Extension workshops and tours on management-intensive grazing and dairy grazing. One Country Edge member attended Extension courses on beekeeping and biotechnology. Otherwise, it has been difficult to convince women to attend Extension events focused on farming practices. EQUAL members often attended these kinds of events as a group, which helped to overcome the discomfort of being greatly outnumbered by the men in attendance.

From 1995-1999, the women's IMPACT groups were required to participate in the statewide IMPACT network annual gatherings. Members of the eastern Nebraska groups - EQUAL and Country Edge - are active, vocal participants in the statewide IMPACT network. The western Nebraska groups, however, did not actively engage in IMPACT networking activities. The barriers to their participation in the IMPACT network were the same as those preventing their participation on the IMPACT Steering Committee, described under the previous objective.