Women Making Strides in Agriculture

By: Erika Ledbetter

Women continue to make huge strides in agriculture, women like Calen Monroe, a regional agent with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System in southeast Alabama.

“My passion for the industry originally came from my grandmother who introduced me to livestock at a young age through helping her volunteer at a farm for special needs kids,” Monroe said. “From that point on I wanted to be a livestock vet and raise beef cattle. My family on my mother’s side were all at some point involved in agriculture, though none of my immediate family is involved in agriculture.”

Monroe said she grew up less than five blocks from the beach on an island in Texas and was never involved in 4-H or FFA.

“I am the biggest advocate for helping people understand that you did not have to grow up around an ag operation or be super involved in ag programs in school to become something in the industry, though others might say different,” she said.

“My stepdad came into my life later and sparked the fire that was my passion for the ag industry even more than it already was through helping me be more involved in the industry and learn more and more about where I wanted to be within the agriculture/cattle industry.”

Monroe started college at Sam Houston State University in 2019 and graduated in 2021. She started college on a path to be a large animal vet and stuck to it until she was a second-semester sophomore and had to take the intro to ag business that every ag major has to take at some point.

“I absolutely fell in love with every aspect of it and made my minor agribusiness,” she said. “So for a year or so I somehow was only taking agribusiness classes that went toward my minor and all my animal science stuff would come later. I loved animal science but when it came to genetics and deep chemistry, I was not about it. I decided I was meant to be on the business side of agriculture.”

Monroe found her passion is ag finances, marketing and making business plans for ag operations. In college, she was involved in the ag industry by being a member of the ag sorority Sigma Alpha, Texas Cattlewomen’s Association, Agriculture Communicators of Tomorrow, and The Agribusiness Association, along with other ag-related activities.

After college, she began a job with the USDA Farm Services Agency helping producers with disaster programs.

“It taught me so much about working with producers and certain aspects of running their operation that Idid not know as much about,” she said. “I have been in Alabama and working for extension for about three months now. I am right where I am supposed to be and absolutely love working for extension and working with the producers of southeast Alabama on all of their farm and agribusiness management needs.”

She is also currently working on her master’s degree at the same school where she received her undergraduate degree in sustainable agriculture.

Monroe also talked about some of the sexism she’s seen in the industry.

“I am a 22-year-old female in the ag industry and sometimes it can be really trying,” she said. “Nobody is ever going to walk up to me and say, ‘You’re a girl you don’t know anything.’ but looks go a long ways on knowing how people feel. Often times, I am the only female in a room and it used to intimidate me, but now it makes me feel like the strongest person there. I sometimes will still shy away in the back corner, but as women in ag, we really have to walk in and steal the room.

“As a younger person in the industry, I often bring ideas that are newer technology that can really scare producers and they will sometimes look at me like I am crazy until they try it. Gaining the respect of producers is the biggest key to getting rid of sexism and being judged based on age.”

Monroe spent the first month of her job going out earning the respect of as many producers as possible.

“People in the agriculture industry talk, and if you gain the respect of the right people, they’ll never look at your age or gender again,” she said. “But again, sexism in agriculture is never going to change until women walk into the room and show them how hard you’ve worked to get where you are and that you know just as much as they do.”