Women Farmers Quantitatively Linked To Better Community Well-Being

Having more women in agriculture is associated with greater community well-being, according to researchers at Penn State and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Their work is the first to quantitatively assess this link, and their findings suggest that women farmers approach their operations in ways that positively impact their communities.

The study, published in Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy, revealed that U.S. counties with a higher share of farms owned or operated by women have higher rates of nonfarm entrepreneurship, longer life expectancies and lower poverty rates.

“We know from previous qualitative research that women farmers tend to enter into farming for different reasons than men and often make decisions with the greater good in mind,” said Claudia Schmidt, assistant professor of marketing and local/regional food systems at Penn State and the study’s lead author. “For example, they strive to meet a social need in their community or they prioritize environmental stewardship over profits. Our study is the first to use quantitative research methods to explore whether this concept of ‘civic agriculture’ actually translates to improved community well-being in places with higher shares of women farmers.”