Agricultural journalist, smallholder and editor of Ford & Fordson Tractors Magazine, Jane Brooks, shines a light on the women of the tractor world.
Last year the Office for National Statistics released some interesting figures. Out of 104,700 registered farmers in the UK, 22% are female. Also in agricultural services, 23% of managers are women.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency also released figures showing that 64% of agricultural students are women. Given that back in the 1930s it was nigh on impossible for a woman to study agriculture that’s a giant leap for farming.
Back in WWI and even more so in WWII, women of the home front became tractor drivers and agricultural engineers out of necessity, as they replaced the male workforce who were fighting on foreign soil. Many ladies took to the agricultural life, marrying farmers, having families and working alongside their husbands.
Today it’s not an unusual sight to see female tractor drivers, hauling corn, baling, drilling, in fact, taking on roles that, only a few decades ago, would have been considered a man’s job. Many women have also realised that career opportunities their mothers or grandmothers may not have had, are open to them.
Automotive master mechanic, Tylor Cartin of Northern Ireland, was a star of the BBC NI ‘Tricked out Tractors’, and I’m sure she has proved to be an inspiration to many young girls who share similar interests.
VINTAGE TRACTORS
A change has also taken place in the vintage and classic tractor world. As we look forward to all the summer shows, tractor runs and other gatherings you can be sure that many lady enthusiasts will be taking along their tractors. Many young girls and boys inherit a passion for vintage tractors from their parents or grandparents, learning to maintain tractors from an early age. Once they have shared in the achievement of restoring an old tractor, it often leads to a hankering for their own tractor.
Also, nowadays tractor clubs like The Ford & Fordson Association, The Friends of Ferguson Heritage and the David Brown Club to name but a few, are only too happy to welcome new. members. Often putting on training events and attending shows where members can display their own tractors. What’s more, the days of the ladies being expected to man the tea urn and make cakes without having the chance to take their own tractor around the show ring are well gone, certainly in one of our local clubs, where one keen member makes great cakes while his wife is the one with the tractor.
This article extract was taken from the July 2025 edition of The Country Smallholder. To read the article in full, you can buy the issue here.
