March is “National Women’s History Month.”

Designed by Dianna Hodge

Dianna Hodge says:

I grew up in a ranching family where the women worked on the ranch along side the men for a common goal.  I also had the good fortune to raise my children the same way.  Therefore, when I had the opportunity to do a poster for women’s history month, I felt that I had lived what the poster should show.

With the theme being generations of women moving history forward, the poster had to have a road.  As I began to think back on how it all started, I immediately remembered my great grandmother who was widowed at a young age with four children and the stories she had told about growing and selling cotton to raise her family.  She was a great inspiration to me and I am told I am as stubborn as she was.  I did an internet search for historical women in agriculture, and soon located the women in the buggy.  Having grown up riding horses all my life, it seemed most appropriate to begin there.  When I found the picture of the old woman looking off into the future, I thought she summed up all women in history, never afraid of hard work.  The next picture was the two women hulling rice was taken on Sapelo Island, Georgia my home state.

The picture of the woman with her children and the goats happens to be my friend and one of our EQIP participants.  She is a single mom raising her family on their farm. 

The other photos are courtesy of the NRCS photo gallery.  They all spotlight the value of women in many fields of agriculture and are all special in their own right.

Dana York earned her place at the top of this poster by making NRCS history being the first woman to hold such a high position in our organization.

 I have a great love for this land of ours and hope to leave it a better place for future generations.