Just three decades ago, women in Australia could not officially call themselves ‘farmers’. It took a concerted effort and a ground-breaking international conference in Australia to change the way the Australian census recognised women in agriculture. Now, on the 30th anniversary of that event, those who fought for change are celebrating a new generation of women on the land.
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00:00Alana Johnson has been farming on her property near Benalla since 1981, but 120 years ago,
00:10women like her didn't count, quite literally.
00:13While livestock were included in Victoria's 1891 census, female farmers were not.
00:19They saw their mothers as invisible and their grandmothers as invisible and they were no
00:25longer happy to be seen as the invisible farmer's wife.
00:29And it took another century for that to change.
00:32Ms Johnson was part of a movement of rural women who demanded their work be officially
00:37recognised in the 1994 census.
00:40It meant actually going public, standing up to the invisibility and saying we are farmers,
00:47we contribute, we work and we're going to claim this space.
00:51Agricultural scientist Anna Lotkiewicz was Victoria's first female beef officer.
00:57She helped organise an international conference of women in agriculture in 1994, which led
01:02to massive political and social changes in Australia.
01:06Pre-1994, women in agriculture were known on all of the legal documents at the farm
01:12as sleeping partner, non-productive.
01:15Amy Cosby is part of a new generation of farming women in an industry seeing rapid technological
01:21changes.
01:22Dr Cosby runs a dairy farm with her husband.
01:25She's also an associate professor of agricultural education and a mother to three young children.
01:31They're really beginning to utilise technology, utilise data to make decisions and I think
01:36women are perfectly suited for that role.
01:39Women now make up one third of Australia's agricultural workforce, but much of their
01:44work remains unpaid, while leadership roles are still largely occupied by men.
01:49To get that next generation of young women involved in ag as female farmers, they can't
01:55be what they can't see.
01:57Recognition that's long overdue.