Women have started becoming more involved in the traditionally male field of agriculture, the seeds of which have been planted for some time.
Raymond Porter, director of the Huntington University Institute for Agriculture Studies, said the field has been traditionally male-led, at least in this country.
"From what I understand, it's not so much the case in places like Africa where most of the food farming, I think, is done by women and I think some of the cash crops are more done by men," he said.
Porter said part of the reason the field has been male-dominated is because of societal roles of men, who would have been the sole earner in the home, and women, who would stay home and manage the home and children.
"With more women engaged in the workforce, I think that's shifting, somewhat, in the responsibilities," he said.
Porter said societal change is also why the field is seeing more women involved.
"Women are being involved in more different kinds of jobs and being able to do that more because of the changing roles of women in society," he said.
More women are getting involved in agriculture, Porter said.
He has seen the change firsthand over the years as he has spoken to students involved in FFA, which he said is now close to half women. This is a stark change from his time in FFA, he added, and there were no women involved in the program.
He has also seen this change over the last couple of decades through his personal experience with agricultural research.
"While I was involved in research at another university, there were a number of colleagues that I knew who were in the workforce in agriculture research that were female," Porter said. "I think that's growing to be more and more the case, I think it's, again, part of a trend that's not just in agriculture but other fields, particularly in science and technology."
Megan Schroeder, who will attend the HU agriculture program in the fall, has also seen a switch toward more women in the agriculture field, she said.
"FFA used to be just men and then women started coming in," she said. "For me, going to FFA contests and stuff, I've almost seen more women than men."
Porter said more than half of the students who have already signed up for the agriculture program at HU, which will launch in the fall, have been women.
"We looking forward to working with both young men and women in this program," he said.
Madison Riley is one of the women who will attend HU in the fall in the agriculture program, double majoring in agribusiness management and crop production.
She's had an interest in agriculture for much of her life, she said.
"I grew up on a hog farm, it was fairly large," Riley said. "That was where my agriculture base comes from."
Once she was in high school, she joined FFA, serving as an officer for three years. This allowed her to gather diverse experience, such as livestock judging and leadership skills among others. She added her heart was "in FFA."
"So, when I looked into colleges...I heard that Huntington had an ag college," Riley said. "Both my parents are alums from there, so it has a special meaning to my parents, but also (HU President) Dr. (Sherilyn) Emberton was very enthusiastic about FFA."
She said Emberton's enthusiasm really got her interested in the new program.
She chose those two majors, Riley said, because they are both "very versatile degrees" with a lot of jobs available.
"I've always enjoyed crops and both my parents are in business so I thought that would be a very prime choice for me and that will help me further my career and education," she said.
Schroeder is going to start out majoring in agribusiness but intends to switch to animal science when that is launched.
She said wanted to pursue agriculture because she grew up with her parents working in agriculture.
"So, I would go to work with them in the barns and stuff before they got promoted to office positions," Schroeder said.
Agriculture and FFA have helped her break out of her shell too, she said.
"That's been huge to me, I used to not talk to anyone," Schroder said. "Now, I can go to cattle shows and say 'hey, that's so-and-so.'"