If women were to stop raising food and stop doing all the other unpaid tasks performed, the world would crumble. In my view our measurements for what we consider to be productivity need to be altered. GNP is not it.

Think about it. How many male gardeners do you know? I can name two and both of them are great-uncles who grew up on farms. All the rest are women. So traditionally, even if their husbands were “farmers” in the occupational sense of raising cash crops or raising crops for livestock, women were subsistence farmers. My great-grandmother kept a garden that fed the family in hard times when the farm wasn’t making any money.

So it really doesn’t surprise that women are running vegetable farms and farmer’s markets and roadside stands because small-scale vegetable production were traditionally undertaken by women.

However, the “farmer” title for most people conjures up fields and fields of “waving grain” and leathery old guys with farmer tans on top of vintage John Deeres. They don’t get that women are just as able, and historically worked right alongside men in the fields, many even while pregnant.

In 10 years, I’ll be surprised if the term “farmer” conjures up that same image. Good for you for working now and breaking that stereotype.

As for powertools? Yeah, they’re a little daunting. I vote starting with a cordless drill or table-top drop saw. They are the easiest. I mean, they let us use those in high school theatre class, so they can’t be that dangerous, can they? ; D

I can sympathize with you regarding being a woman in a profession that is traditionally viewed as male dominated/oriented. As someone who runs a small CSA farm and who is also an independant construction contractor (tile and stone), I know just where you’re coming from.