Historically, agriculture in Canada has been a male-dominated industry, but women have always played very pivotal roles in farm businesses – just mostly behind the scenes or in a supportive rather than leading capacity.

This is now changing. Along with the general demographic shift in agriculture as older farmers are retiring and a new generation is taking over, women are also increasingly stepping into management and leadership roles in farms of all types and sizes.

The last Canadian Census of Agriculture put some numbers to this shift that we’re seeing. It recorded the first increase in the number of women who are farming in our country in 30 years – 30 per cent or about 80,000 of Canada’s farmers are female.

That same Census showed that women are running larger farms than ever before, with an 86.3% increase in women running farms with $2 million or more in annual revenue. Ontario is home to the largest proportion of women farmers, followed by Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec.