This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Florence Becot, a rural sociologist and the lead for Penn State's Agricultural Safety and Health Program.
Becot and her colleagues Shoshanah Inwood and Hannah Bridge recently published a study in the Journal of Agromedicine that explored common domestic stresses associated with women who live and work on farms.
The study consisted of 68 women across 11 groups discussing the ways they dealt with raising children on the farm.
Most of the participants reported feeling anxiety or stress related to the number of responsibilities they were juggling.
"All of the groups, at one point or another, discussed stress," said Becot. "They also talked about depression, and mental illnesses, whether or not they had been diagnosed."
Women in the study discussed feeling anxiety over raising children on the farm. Though many agreed they felt favorably about letting their children grow up on a farm, they acknowledged it comes with a unique set of challenges, especially for mothers who are responsible for performing farm work.
"Raising children on the farm is wonderful. So many moms talked about how much they love having the children around. They wouldn't do it any other way," Becot said. "But the reality is, we've talked to women farmers who said if I was a nurse at the hospital, I wouldn't be allowed to bring my kid. Why is there this weird expectation that I should have my kid with me when I'm driving this really heavy piece of machinery?"
Women aren't just responsible for child care, Becot explained. In addition to farm work and off-farm jobs, they're often responsible for cooking and household chores, and may also be responsible for caring for an older relative or for various community-related initiatives like church or social groups.
It can easily build into a stressful situation where women feel overburdened.
Researchers have been studying mental health in the farming industry for decades. However, Becot noted that it's only been within the past three to four years that they've started looking into how mental health manifests in women.
"We really never have talked a whole lot about women and how women's mental health might be different than men. How the stressors might be different," said Becot.
As more women join the agriculture industry, it's important to keep studying these differences, along with the unique stressors women on the farm and in rural communities are facing, to provide them with resources for help.
At the end of the day, women should be able to balance their domestic and farm responsibilities in order to succeed in both arenas, Becot said.
"That's what this work is about. It is about supporting women in agriculture, in their ability to both be a parent and a professional."
