Reading Time: < 1 minute Calgary — Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau drew applause from delegates attending the Advancing Women in Agriculture (AWC) conference here this week as she acknowledged their efforts for paving her path into politics. Bibeau told delegates attending the 10th annual conference she’s never felt like she’s had to fight for spot at the political table […] Read more
AWC 2023: Federal ag minister inspired by farm women’s progress
Don't wait to be asked to participate, Bibeau tells AWC West
A life in parallel
It’s there in many farmers from the beginning. Of course Anne Lazurko wanted to excel at farming, but there was a drive in her that was equally persistent — to become a novelist. But how does a farmer make that kind of leap?
Reading Time: 8 minutes When you’re one half of a busy couple running a farm while also raising four young children, there isn’t a lot of time left over. If you’ve got other passions or aspirations, well, they just have to wait. Except it turns out this isn’t entirely true, as Anne Lazurko was to discover. Lazurko dreamed of […] Read more
The equitable farm
Being fair and equitable to women on the farm has to start much closer to home than most of us are aware
Reading Time: 12 minutes Women in agriculture span the career spectrum from hands-on farm owners and managers to the unpaid extra pair of hands that runs to get parts or takes a turn checking the cows at calving time. Women fill all those roles and more, and almost without exception, they juggle that work with all the other balls […] Read more
Are you ready for this?
Columnist Leeann Minogue learns that if you don’t get on board with how these young women think, you’ll get left behind
Reading Time: 8 minutes What do young women think about the male-dominated ag industry that they are about to enter? I had been asking myself this question, and I wanted to find out, so I talked to a selection of female ag students. What did I hear? Without exception, these young women all wanted to know why I was […] Read more
Editor’s Note: It’s too early to say the battle for gender equality is won
Reading Time: 2 minutes Agriculture’s progress on the gender front has been uneven. Country Guide’s, I have to admit, has been uneven too. So yes, let’s celebrate women’s gains, but remember that more must be done. I wondered recently if Guide should do an issue where all the farmers and all the business advisors, in fact where all the […] Read more
A question for women in 2022
Gender issue? What gender issues? Hasn’t the battle already been fought and won?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Try it yourself. Check it out with women in agriculture who speak about gender issues in the industry. Find them informally via social media or look for them through an ag women’s organization, of which there are several across Canada today. Then ask them what kind of response they get when they talk about gender […] Read more
A Canadian woman’s experience in ag
On the farm and in her boardrooms, here’s Amy Vanderheide’s story
Reading Time: 3 minutes Amy VanderHeide had great role models growing up. She was raised on a beef farm that was run entirely by women after her grandfather passed away in 1986. With her grandmother and aunts continuing to operate the farm throughout her childhood, she wasn’t aware of the barriers that existed for women in agriculture. “I didn’t […] Read more
Different goals for women in ag
It turns out diversity, equity and inclusion in agriculture are things we can do something about, as this case study proves
Reading Time: 8 minutes Statistics show that women in agriculture face barriers and are under-represented in the industry. But if you are female AND you weren’t born in Canada AND you didn’t grow up on a farm, imagine how high the barriers are then. But that may be beginning to change. Entrepreneur Laura Lazo, who also serves as chair […] Read more
The Dream Gap
Bright Ideas: Many farms feel they treat their boys and girls equitably. Sadly, our columnist finds, the evidence doesn’t agree
Reading Time: 6 minutes By five years of age, girls have already begun to develop self-limiting beliefs. They stop believing that they can be or do anything. And they may never get that belief back. It’s a phenomenon that was identified in a 2017 report from Plan International, and it has also became well known as the Dream Gap, […] Read more
Program helps women take the next step in agriculture
You’re overworked already, so how can it possibly make sense to sign up for education approaches like the new ELLE program?
Reading Time: 7 minutes It was 2017, and Kristen Ritson-Bennett was understandably overwhelmed. Ritson-Bennett is an Alberta cattle nutritionist and co-owner of a successful ruminant vitamin and mineral supplement manufacturing business. Plus she was supporting her husband Andrew in starting a second business, a veterinary clinic. And, she was pregnant with her second child. That’s when Ritson-Bennett decided to […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
