Last month, there was a celebration of “International Women’s Day”. It made me think about how far our industry has come and how women have played a part in making it what it is today. As a woman vendor, I have never thought twice about being a woman in a male dominated industry. I have always felt like everyone treated me like my uncle, brother or just a great friend. I have always felt like I could drop by any operation in the country and be welcomed. Next year, our company will be celebrating 30 years with our Chem-Man software. It’s kind of funny, but now it seems like all the new pilots are like my kids.
Throughout the years, I’ve seen the many roles that women have played to help make their operations work. Sometimes they are wives that are working another job and helping after hours, or women that have quit their jobs to help their husbands with loading, billing and whatever needs to be done. I even had a customer tell me that their daughter helped out from college remotely.
We had our first woman president of the NAAA, Brenda Watts, who I’ve admired as a businesswoman for years. She did an outstanding job as president and made me proud. Others have also held officer positions on the NAAA board as well.
I see many women who help out with organizing conventions, donation drives, Athena meetings and much more to help us within our industry. There are women who own their own ag operations and are highly successful at it. I am seeing new women pilots getting on board and that also excites me very much. More women vendors are also coming on board.
I love the fact that Deborah Freeman is always helping me out with our marketing and graphics at AgAir Update. She helps organize my ads and articles. I feel AgAir Update is such a tremendous asset to our industry. I recently gave a shout out celebrating women in the industry on the Cropduster sites and had some good responses including Terry Jordan’s response “Lot’s of awesome women in our industry”. I know that we’re all appreciated.
I also wanted to give one last shout out to the women in my company. Between our lead developer Cassie, support staff Libby, office manager Amy and lead marketing manager Ashleigh, they are all a tremendous asset to me.
I say all this not to underestimate the value of all our good men! We all work together and get the job done. Teamwork is everything!
Thanks to everyone for all that you do.
