00:00Alana Johnson has been farming on her property near Benalla since 1981, but 120 years ago,
00:10women like her didn't count, quite literally.
00:13While livestock were included in Victoria's 1891 census, female farmers were not.
00:19They saw their mothers as invisible and their grandmothers as invisible and they were no
00:25longer happy to be seen as the invisible farmer's wife.
00:29And it took another century for that to change.
00:32Ms Johnson was part of a movement of rural women who demanded their work be officially
00:37recognised in the 1994 census.
00:40It meant actually going public, standing up to the invisibility and saying we are farmers,
00:47we contribute, we work and we're going to claim this space.
00:51Agricultural scientist Anna Lotkiewicz was Victoria's first female beef officer.
00:57She helped organise an international conference of women in agriculture in 1994, which led
01:02to massive political and social changes in Australia.
01:06Pre-1994, women in agriculture were known on all of the legal documents at the farm
01:12as sleeping partner, non-productive.
01:15Amy Cosby is part of a new generation of farming women in an industry seeing rapid technological
01:21changes.
01:22Dr Cosby runs a dairy farm with her husband.
01:25She's also an associate professor of agricultural education and a mother to three young children.
01:31They're really beginning to utilise technology, utilise data to make decisions and I think
01:36women are perfectly suited for that role.
01:39Women now make up one third of Australia's agricultural workforce, but much of their
01:44work remains unpaid, while leadership roles are still largely occupied by men.
01:49To get that next generation of young women involved in ag as female farmers, they can't
01:55be what they can't see.
01:57Recognition that's long overdue.
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