MOSCOW, Idaho — Ryanne Pilgeram wants to make sure women farmers have ready access to the resources they need.

But even finding the time to answer survey questions can be difficult for some, she recently found.

Pilgeram conducted focus groups with women farmers around Idaho, including refugee farmers, last summer.

“We didn’t have very many mothers with young children — we had a lot who wanted to do it and then at the last moment, were like, ‘Oh, my kids! I can’t!’” Pilgeram said. “So if those are barriers to even doing a focus group about how to support women. …”

Roughly 464 women took the researchers’ survey.

The biggest needs are access to land and funding, specific information and allowing women farmers to connect with other women farmers with the same pursuit, Pilgeram said.

“How can we support these networks, but we also know if they’re not organized by the women themselves, they tend to fall apart,” Pilgeram said. “If we organize them, they’re not going to be as successful as if people find each other.”

If most women are likely to have small-scale farms, Pilgeram wonders what barriers keep them from operating larger farms and ranches.

She grew up on a cattle ranch, and initially studied small-scale and conventional agriculture.

“I sort of took my dissertation research and thought, ‘I’m going to answer some of these questions about women in agriculture that I don’t think have been answered very effectively before,’” Pilgeram said.

She’s in the process of reviewing and revising various publications. UI Extension will use the information to design training to support women farmers more effectively.

Women-operated farms tend to have a lower return on investment than farms owned by men, said Colette DePhelps, UI Extension area educator, who has worked with Pilgeram on the project.

“The research she is doing is helping us identify how to best serve women in agriculture in Idaho,” DePhelps said.

Pilgeram has been contacted by leaders interested in using her research to help form national policy, DePhelps said. She also offers Pilgeram’s name up as a speaker for organizations.

In 2021, Pilgeram published a book, “Pushed Out: Contested Development and Rural Gentrification in the West.” The book examines economic changes in Dover, a rural North Idaho community near Sandpoint, as it transitioned from a lumber mill economy to a recreation economy.

“The way my brain works, I love thinking about problems,” she said. “I’m always convinced that we don’t really understand problems. If we had a better understanding of the problem, then our solutions would be much more effective.”

Katie Dentzman, assistant professor of rural policy and rural sociology at Iowa State University, worked with Pilgeram as a postdoctoral research associate at UI, and they continue to collaborate.

“Ryanne has a unique capacity to think outside of the commonly accepted explanations for why things are the way they are,” Dentzman said. “She blends idealism with matter-of-fact practicality in a way that can really shift perspectives and make change. She doesn’t sugar-coat reality, but she’s going to try her best to improve it no matter the odds.”

“She really wants her research to be useful to making better lives for people and communities,” DePhelps said. “She’s really dedicated to the human side of research and to the application of research for making women in agriculture, women-owned businesses, more successful.”

Occupation: Associate professor of sociology, University of Idaho

Age: 41

Hometown: Gold Creek, Mont. 

Current location: Moscow, Idaho

Education: Ph.D. in sociology, University of Oregon

Family: Married, three children

Website: https://bit.ly/3rjZrni