Women make up more than a quarter of all U.S. farmworkers, an increase of more than 55% over the past decade.
Women accounted for 28.1% of farmworkers in 2021, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service division. In 2009, the rate of women farmworkers was less than 19%.
Farm work includes picking and sorting crops. It also includes working with livestock and in animal nurseries.
Some credit the growth in women farmworkers to improvements in technology and safety, including the growing use of hydraulic platforms that replace ladders for harvesting fruit and conveyor belts that reduce the amount of crops needing to be carried, according to a 2020 USDA report on the growing rate.
“These aids allow more women and older workers to perform tasks traditionally done by younger men,” the report stated.
Women have also entered the farmworker field as it has become harder in recent years to fill jobs with immigrant labor, especially from Mexico, according to the USDA. Although the 28.1% rate of women farmworkers includes both U.S. citizens and immigrants.
The growth of women in the field has created a need for more advocacy work that focuses on reducing workplace domestic violence and protecting pregnant women from pesticides, according to Farmworker Justice, a nonprofit that works with migrant and seasonal farmworkers.
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