Starting small is important for women, according to Lyn Garling. She says because farming can be capital and labor intensive, new operations have to guard against taking on too much.

“Another big challenge in agriculture is labor—it’s very labor intensive,” she continues. “I’m trying to scale my operation so that if I had no help, I could still manage it. That limits the size and extent of my farming activities. If you can’t pay for labor, you have to rely on volunteers and occasional labor. Most of the people I contact about volunteering are happy to help. An amazing number of young people want to get farming experience—that is a great resource.”

At meetings of sustainable and organic farmers, Garling is noticing many more women and younger people in the audience. Youth are interested in farming—males and females, she believes—but they can’t see getting into conventional farming because it takes too much capital and generates slim profit margins. So she sees new enterprises coalescing around more diverse agriculture and direct marketing. “Now many of the people coming into farming are not from farming backgrounds,” Garling says. “The face of agriculture is changing for many reasons, and women are in that mix. So as we attract new farmers, we have to establish women’s networks to help us work together to make our farms healthy, fulfilling, and profitable undertakings.”

Garling’s observations on the changing roles of women in farming are borne out by several studies conducted by the Penn State Women on U.S. Farms Initiative. Research group member Carolyn Sachs, who’s studied women in farming since the 1970s, says the history of the American family farm has influenced women’s perceived roles within it. American farming has long been a family enterprise, even as the scale of farming has changed.