Women Landowners and the Language of Partnership Needed for Water Quality Change

Abstract

In the Midwest, women landowners are one of the most powerful populations who can effect real change in water quality. Their potential, however, has been under-recognized, and they have been largely left out of conservation outreach and education (Eells & Soulis 2013; Druschke & Secchi 2014). Agriculture has traditionally been the purview of men, and the very language in agriculture and conservation itself is problematic. Terms such as “non-operator” and “absentee landowner” perpetuate misperceptions of landowners as un-invested in, and distanced from, decision-making in agriculture. Further, these terms focus primarily on the land—and land as an asset to be managed (operated)—and less on the vital connections between land use and water quality, between people and the natural world.