Characteristics of Women Farm Operators and Their Farms

Economic Research Service, USDA Characteristics of Women Farm Operators and Their Farms, EIB-111 35
pp. 21-22). Joint operations by a couple are likely to report the husband as the principal
operator. In many cases, the husband may actually be the principal operator,
with the most responsibility for day-to-day decisions. Even in truly joint operations,
however, where both spouses are equally involved in decisions, the husband may be
listed as the principal operator more often than the wife.
Joint Operations on Men-Operated Farms
Census data for men-operated farms are generally consistent with the ARMS data
(table 13) and suggest that most two-operator farms with a man as the principal
operator and a woman as second operator are married couple farms. Roughly a third
of all men-operated farms in the census have two operators, usually with a woman
secondary operator. The man principal operator is, on average, 3 years older than
the woman second operator, 55 versus 52 years, with little variation by sales class
(table 14). This age difference is consistent with ARMS data for women second
operators working on farms operated by couples, since husbands tend to be slightly
older than wives. In the 2007 ARMS, for example, men principal operators average
56 years of age on married couple farms compared with 53 years for their wives. 9
Although joint operations are common, roughly three-fifths of all men-operated
farms have only one operator (table 13). After sales exceed $250,000, however, the
one-operator share falls from the 60-percent level and an increasing share of farms
have two or more operators, but with a diminishing role for women second operators.
In fact, two-operator farms with a male principal operator and a female second
operator decline steadily from 33 percent of all men-operated farms to 18 percent as
sales increase from less than $10,000 to $1 million or more.
As farms increase in size, they often require more management and labor. Additional
operators can provide this, and possibly other resources such as farmland or capital.
ARMS data show that the share of secondary operators who are spouses falls as sales
class increases and additional operators are added (Hoppe et al., 2008, p. 20).
Joint Operations on Women-Operated Farms
The situation is somewhat different for women-operated farms. About one-third
of women-operated farms have two operators (as was the case with men-operated
farms), mostly with male second operators. On average, the woman principal
operator is 54 years old, compared with 52 years for the male second operator (table
14). This age gap—with the woman older than the man—reaches to 6 or 7 years for
farms selling between $50,000 and $499,999.
In contrast, the 2007 ARMS reports husbands as slightly older than their wives—
averaging 55 and 53 years of age, respectively—on married couple farms with a
woman principal operator. The higher average age for the woman principal opera-
9 Nearly all married couple farms in the 2007 ARMS were based on a traditional husband
and wife marriage. Same-gender couples accounted for only 1.4 percent of married couple
farms in the 2007 ARMS. Same-gender couples were excluded from the ARMS data when
calculating the average ages of husbands and wives. Detailed analysis of same-gender
couples is not possible due to their small sample size in ARMS.