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Stressed out: The new tool examining stress among women farmers

As Iowa farmers continue to age, a University of Iowa professor says one way to ward off farmland consolidation is to uncover the stressors for women farmers.

IOWA, USA — It's no secret that farming is a stressful occupation. A new tool, created by a University of Iowa professor, is helping researchers better understand the types of stressors that are most pressing to women farmers. 

A 2022 Iowa State University study found that Iowa's women landowners, including co-owners, account for 47% of farmland owners in the state. That makes up 46% of Iowa's farmland acres. 

However, women have historically been overlooked in educational materials for landowners. That's where Carly Nichols, University of Iowa assistant professor of geographical and sustainability sciences, comes in. 

Nichols, alongside research assistant professor of occupational and environmental health Jonathan Davis, created the Women Farmer Stress Inventory. It looks at the kinds of stressors that female agricultural workers and landowners find most pressing, as well as what conditions are associated with greater levels of stress. 

The inventory used responses from a random sample of 592 Iowa women farmers who responded to a mailed survey. 

Results showed five unique factors that reflect different aspects of stress among women farmers: 

  • Time pressures and workload
  • Environmental concern 
  • External stressors from governments and markets 
  • Interpersonal relationships
  • Rural amenities  

"This research is important because the average age of Iowa's farmers continues to climb, and the next decade will see a large transition of farmland. One of the keys to ward of further farmland consolidation is to get, and keep, more farmers on the land," the university said in a press release. 

According to Nichols, the analysis found younger farmers and those working off-farm jobs are much more likely to have stress around 'external factors' including government policy and markets. There's also a higher chance for this group to have 'time stress.' 

"We find the second largest stressor for women is accessing health insurance for their families - which we argue may also explain why so many women are compelled to have full time off-farm jobs that cause time stress," Nichols wrote in a press release." It is critical that policymakers address some of the key producers of stress that might make individuals keener to rent land to their neighbor rather than cultivate themselves. 

You can check out the full inventory and study by clicking here

Nichols joined The Current on News 8 to discuss this study and its findings. You can watch her full interview in the above video.

Tune into The Current from 4 to 5 p.m. on weekdays to catch even more live interviews impacting you, your family and your hometown as well as all of the biggest headlines of the day.

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