WOMEN have long played an important role in British agriculture, though their work hasn’t always been acknowledged. To celebrate International Women’s Day today, we’re sharing these illuminating photographs from the Daily Herald Archive, shining a light on women farm workers in the 20th century.
The archive, a treasure trove of 20th-century photo-journalism, is organised into many sections, one of which is a vast collection titled ‘Industry’. These photographs cover everything from country shows to unusual jobs. Among them is a wealth of material showing women working in farming and agricultural roles.
The Daily Herald was a British national newspaper published from 1912-1964. It was once the top-selling newspaper in the world, with a monthly circulation of more than two million. Every photograph and negative taken for the newspaper was stored in a picture library, categorised and filed. This remarkable collection - comprising 3.5 million photographs, contact sheets and glass negatives - is the Daily Herald Archive, now cared for here in Bradford, at the National Science and Media Museum.
For centuries, women have played a vital part in helping to source and harvest food. But in the past, women farmers were generally referred to as farmers’ wives or daughters, and the true extent of their work was often not recognised or recorded. Gender roles in agriculture have varied across societies; in Britain men have historically been more involved with field work and large animals, and women with domestic duties and caring for small livestock.
Harvest season is the most labour-intensive part of the year. Men, women and children, some brought in from outside the area, traditionally worked together to gather crops and store them for the winter. With the introduction of machines, particularly the combine harvester, to do part of this labour in the 19th and 20th centuries, women became less involved in the harvest, but small farms continued to work in this way well into the 20th century.
Mushrooms are an easy crop to grow - due to their short growth cycle, they require little manual labour, investment, space or time - and women have been involved in the cultivation of mushrooms since farming began in Western Europe in the 17th century. A few contemporary initiatives set up to help fight poverty have focused on training poor or unemployed women to farm mushrooms; it can be done from home and is a useful way to supplement household income or enable women to become self-sufficient.
Some images of mushroom farming in the archive were taken in Bradford-on-Avon, where a large quarry was converted to a mushroom farm during the Second World War. The underground tunnels were perfect for growing mushrooms.
Ploughing has traditionally been done by men, as it requires considerable upper body strength to create straight furrows and control large animals. The development of the plough has long been cited as an explanation for why women were reduced to secondary roles in farming and feeding their families. When agricultural societies developed in the 18th and 19th centuries, ploughing competitions became part of the annual calendar. These contests were traditionally male dominated but women have been allowed to enter them for some time, demonstrating their skills and winning prizes.
The British National Ploughing Championship started in 1950 and is held in a different part of the country each year, with men and women competing side by side.
The Women’s Land Army was set up to boost food production in the Second World War and free up men to fight. Women were initially asked to volunteer for the Land Army, but from December 1941 they could be conscripted to work on the land. By 1944 more than 80,000 ‘Land Girls’ were working long hours milking cows, digging ditches, sowing seeds and harvesting crops to feed the nation.
The war had a positive impact on attitudes towards women in farming. The National Farmers’ Union was openly critical of women working on the land at the start of the war, but praised their contribution highly afterwards. Women continued their vital work with the WLA until 1950. The Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service also helped on the land during the war.
The Lend a Hand on the Land campaign, launched in 1945, continued into the post-war years, encouraging people to help with essential food production and agricultural work. Urban dwellers were encouraged to help by spending their holidays working on farms in rural areas.
While women have played a huge part in practical and administrative agricultural work, they often faced barriers to working in the sector, because of difficulty obtaining land and tools - usually due to family land and farms inherited by men and difficulty accessing education. The Women’s Farm and Garden Association was founded in 1899 in response to concerns about a lack of employment opportunities for women working on the land. Many agricultural colleges were used to train the WLA. After the war, with continued food rationing, young men and women were trained in agriculture, farming methods and food production.
In recent decades women’s representation in agriculture has increased considerably and they are particularly well represented in fast-growing markets such as organic, local, direct-to-market and farm tourism. In February 2018 the 110-year-old National Farmers’ Union of England and Wales elected beef farmer Minette Batters its first female president. Changes to technology, and attitudes, have made career opportunities in farming more accessible to everyone, including women.
* Visit scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/women-agriculture
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