REGINA, Sask. – Wrinkles appeared on the face of farm feminism at the annual meeting of the Saskatchewan Women’s Agricultural Network Feb. 7.
Disagreement arose as the SWAN members wrestled with a resolution asking Statistics Canada to include questions in the next agricultural census that would determine the unpaid workload on the family farm.
SWAN chairperson Lil Sabiston noted few farm women list themselves as a farmer on the form, deferring to their husband as the sole operator. But Robin Fenell and Elaine Meachem, both of whom have farmed on their own, said there is a difference between being a farm wife and a farmer. Each role has its own responsibilities, which Fenell said she didn’t realize until she was farming by herself.
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Two other women who also have farmed their own land, Anna Kroeker and Donet Elder, disagreed.
Elder said: “When I sign a cheque I say I’m a farmer. … The crux is, is it any less important that a woman stays in the house or goes out?”
Kroeker said the issue may be based on what people define as a farmer. Women who are partners with their spouses may not see themselves as actual farmers.
Noreen Johns, SWAN executive secretary, said the resolution speaks “to the fact that if this unpaid work being done by the wife, the kids and relatives is ever paid, then it would shame the country to realize the cheap food policy and how much underpaid farm toil is. The only way we work to decent incomes is to get the census to count it.”
The motion passed.
Another motion, which was eventually approved after some debate, urged the women who are joint permit book holders to get their own vote in future Canadian Wheat Board elections. Johns said although she and her husband were both listed in the permit book, they shared one vote this fall. Despite phone calls and letters to politicians and bureaucrats, the rule stayed.
Kroeker said she and her spouse have separate permit books so they each got a vote. She urged women who farm to set up their own permit since there are economic advantages as well as voting privileges.
But at least three SWAN members wondered about extending the franchise resolution to cover all farming partners since there were also men who had to share votes because of the permit book criteria.
No amendment was made after Elder and others said they saw this as a women’s issue and that men have other avenues to register their displeasure.
Other motions passed:
- SWAN rejects the Estey report as harmful to Saskatchewan agriculture because of its recommendation to remove the freight rate cap, the failure to share railroad productivity gains and the suggested removal of the wheat board and the Car Allocation Policy Group from grain transportation.
- SWAN will lobby the provincial agriculture minister to review a proposed law that would make farmers and truckers jointly liable for overweight trucks.
- That the provincial government allow child care to be included as
legitimate summer employment for government job subsidies.
- That the provincial balancing work and family research be re-done for rural, farm and small business work environments.
- That the provincial training allowance for adult upgrading courses be reviewed since it excludes farmers based on their assets.
