Being a ‘Farmer’s Wife’

Like any essential service, it takes a special type of person to be a farmer. You work long hours, keep an erratic sleep schedule and have to put your work first for your business to thrive. 

Being a farmer’s spouse is often just as grueling. Passion and dedication are necessary to get through tougher times. With that said, have you ever wondered what being a farmer’s wife was like at the dawn of the 1900s? 

Here are some ways the role has evolved.

Spouses Were Almost Always Women 

Back in the early 1900s, most farms were owned by men. Though married women’s property acts were enacted as early as 1839, the husband was often considered the sole owner and operator of the farm. 

Things have changed in the modern era. 

According to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, there were 1,139,675 female-operated farms in the U.S. This is largely due to the progression of women’s rights. Since females are now allowed to own property, the census more accurately depicts women’s contributions on the farm. 

Nowadays the terms “farmer’s spouse” or just “farmer” are more accurate, considering many family farms are co-owned or owned outright by females. 

Farmer’s wives have always played an essential role in the family business. Though they may not have gotten the credit financially or on paper, the work of a farmer’s wife in the 1900s was just as important to the daily operations as the farmer’s duties. 

They Were Extremely Overworked

In the early 1900s, the Industrial Revolution made great strides in the efficiency of farming and production. However, it sometimes required livestock to operate and was very expensive. This meant manual labor was still the norm. The use of electricity indoors existed but wasn’t commonplace. 

Often, everything had to be done the hard way — with physical labor. 

According to records from the Tompkins County Public Library, a farm wife’s daily tasks included:

• Cleaning and scrubbing the entire home, as well as doing dishes and laundry by hand.
• Making breakfast, lunch and dinner entirely from scratch. This included: milking the cows, churning the butter, tending chickens, weeding, planting and harvesting the personal garden.
• Sewing, crocheting and mending all the clothing for the family.
• Tending to the children and to anyone in the family who was sick. 

They also had to work hard to can and preserve any extra produce they didn’t eat or sell for the winter. 

During harvest season, she had to feed any hired hands, which meant more cooking, harvesting and cleaning. Children of farmers helped with the chores, but often worked in the field with the farmer, leaving the farm wife to do everything at home herself. 

A farm wife often needed to sell produce, eggs and sewing projects to help pay the bills. Like the farmer, her job was to be done seven days a week. It didn’t matter if she was sick or tired. It was life. 

The physical toll may have improved since the 20th century, but farming still impacts mental health. Our article from the May issue “It’s Time We Talked About Farmers,” highlights how stress, stigma and lack of mental health care affect our hard-working food providers each and every day.

If you or someone you love is struggling with mental health, sites like www.mentalhealthhotline.org may be able to help.

Farm Wives Were Often Cut Off From Society

As you can imagine, this grueling daily regimen meant very little time for socializing. You barely had any downtime. If you were awake, you were working — so were your husband and kids. 

There was no internet, no texting; transportation also took longer. In rural areas, you had to go into town to use the phone and send and receive letters. With a farm wife’s massive workload, there simply wasn’t time. 

Tools of communication have improved by leaps and bounds in the 21st century. The nature of the work, however, can still affect social and home life. Farm spouses have to be comfortable with the job taking precedence. 

“It can be tricky finding healthy ways to de-stress,” Shelby Visser told Farmers Hot Line. Shelby’s husband Jake and his family own Visser Farms, established in 1902, in Zeeland, Michigan. They are fifth-generation farmers. 

“We live on the farm, so work/life balance is pretty much non-existent. We don’t even have that 10-minute commute to relax after a long workday,” Visser said.

Shelby handles the marketing, social media and administrative side of the business. Though they work at the same location, they rarely work side by side.

“I barely see him throughout the day, though he can sometimes come home for lunch,” she says, laughing when asked what it’s like working with your spouse. 

“He works around 80-90 hours a week during the growing and farming seasons and around 40-50 hours in the winter. That makes it hard to plan social events or even figure out dinner and bedtimes. That being said, we love our jobs.”

The pride and fulfillment in her voice while talking about their work and family makes it clear that the inconveniences are worth it. 

Spouses in Modern Times Aren’t Required to Participate in the Farm 

In the early 1900s, marrying a farmer meant becoming a farmer. Period. Your family’s plot of land was all-consuming — you, your husband and your children had to sacrifice everything needed to thrive. 

Now, many spouses can choose to pursue other careers. In some cases, this can help with family stress since profits from farming can be unpredictable. It also gives spouses the opportunity for more independence if that’s something that is wanted. 

The jobs and chores on the farm have also changed drastically. Advertising and social media are as vital as growing and harvesting the produce.

Nowadays, working on the family farm doesn’t mean hours upon hours of backbreaking labor. Your contribution may be more of an office setting, making the important connections needed to get your product out there to sell. 

Farm spouses and their families have always been essential in the agriculture field. Without them, farmers wouldn’t have had the freedom and availability needed to tend the fields and livestock. It’s important to celebrate their contributions to history and always remember the impact they’ve had on our accessibility to healthy and safe food.