Let's hear it for the girls - women in the tractor seat

Agricultural journalist, smallholder and editor of Ford & Fordson Tractors Magazine Jane Brooks, joins us for her regular look at the world.

- Jane Brooks

Last year the Office for National Statistics released some interesting figures. Out of 104,700 registered farmers in the UK 22% are female, also in agricultural services 23% of managers are women. The Higher Education Statistics Agency also released figures showing that 64% of agricultural students are women. Given that back in the 1930s it was nigh on impossible for a woman to study agriculture that’s a giant leap for farming. Back in WWI and even more so in WWII women of the home front became tractor drivers and agricultural engineers out of necessity, as they replaced the male workforce who were fighting on foreign soil. Many ladies took to the agricultural life, marrying farmers, having families and working alongside their husbands. Today it’s not an unusual sight to see female tractor drivers, hauling corn, baling, drilling, in fact, taking on roles that would only a few decades ago would have been considered a man's job. Many women have also realised that career opportunities their mothers or grandmother may not have had are open to them. Automotive master mechanic Tylor Cartin of Northern Ireland was a star of the BBC NI ‘Tricked out Tractors’, and I’m sure she has proved to be an inspiration to many young girls who share similar interests.

VINTAGE TRACTORS