Farming the Land: Girls of the 21st Century

By Victoria Purcell on September 8th 2010

Farming the Land: Girls of the 21st Century

Veteran and 21st century Land Girls celebrated over 70 years of women's farming at an event to be held at the Imperial War Museum London's Wartime Farm on 19 August. Working together at the museum’s temporary outdoor Wartime Farm, the Land Girls demonstrated how the skills of women in the sector have changed during the last 70 years, while highlighting how the government-funded Women and Work programme has helped the modern day Land Girls to develop their skills and careers.

Environmental and land-based skills council Lantra, launched the Women and Work programme to redress the balance in the agricultural workforce – 81% of which is male. Lantra’s programme, which provides women with £450 training grants, has helped more than 3,000 women over the last four years gain skills in areas such as farm-shop layout, tractor driving, butchery, animal and livestock foot trimming, website design, management and accounts.

The Wartime Farm, which opened for two weeks in August at Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, featured sheep, goats, pigs and chickens from Surrey Docks Farm. Vauxhall City Farm even provided a fake cow for visitors to milk.

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