World Rural Women's Day:  Front-line Feminism in the Village
By Jo Leath for Rural Womyn Zone
Nova Scotia, Canada
Published November 14, 2001

In these days when corporations and governments have adopted the vocabulary Global Village, the reality in the Industrialized West is that few people in fact live in villages, or can recall what village life is like. Yet 22.2% of the Canadian population lives in towns numbering fewer than 10,000 inhabitants.

Melvern Square, on the south side of North Mountain in Annapolis County Nova Scotia is a village. A real village. According to Canada Post, there are almost 200 homes. That is more than the traditional number of Melvern Square residences; Canada Post includes a newly built subdivision that is not in fact a part of the original "square".

In Melvern Square it is still possible to hold a Village Tea;  and indeed teas are held, several times a year, marking the seasons and the major festivals: Mothers' Day, and Christmas. The truism holds, if you build it they will come, and if tea is poured, community members are soon attending to partake of it! A villager is free to ask for and receive the keys to the Community Hall, -- that which was the school house until the early 1970s, and to call around and arrange for the donation of cookies, cakes, or sandwiches, according to the requirements of the event.

At first, the women contacted to bake for a World Rural Women's Day Tea were confused. Although the Canadian Federation of Agriculture says that just over 25% of farm operators in Canada in 1996 were women, and UN statistics show that women perform 30% of the agricultural work in industrialized countries, the women who live on the farms around Melvern Square do not see themselves as people who might be granted a 'day' by the United Nations. Willing to be involved, they appeared non-plussed by the theme. Baffled courtesy greeted me, I was granted permission to celebrate the women I was talking about, "Rural women," they repeated, "Well, it's not really as if they do anything."  They left, shaking their heads.

When the day of the tea dawned, it was in fact the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty,  two days after the World Rural Women's Day. A windswept rainy morning in Melvern, a day when many drivers remain parked. Nonetheless, tea tables were set, and people arrived,  mostly women, all of them curious about the unusual title of the happening.  The three speakers held them all spellbound.

Janice Lawrence of Bridgetown spoke about her role as a farmer, farm worker, farm wife, farm mother, agricultural activist and community builder. She compared the contribution of rural women to thread in a quilt; present in every inch of the greater community, and strong enough to hold it all together.

Next was Jean Ward of Lawrencetown. Jean listed her dozens of jobs as a dairy farmer, family member and board-member of rural and agricultural organizations, working on National, regional and local levels. Her presentation included statistics about the economic impact of farming in Annapolis County, and a celebration of the success of rural mothers. In this county, they have created a lifestyle which appeals to young people, who are choosing to stay on or return to the land, resulting in the lowest average farmer age in the province.

The final speaker was Linda Tupper, owner-operator of Babies Unlimited, the hog farm in Morristown, Kings County. Linda has the largest agricultural loan ever granted to a  woman in Nova Scotia. She talked about her life as farmer, mother and employer, and about the demands of recent environmental regulations on her business. She spoke too of her success as she prepares to pass the work to younger farmers during the next decade, while she adjusts her focus to public education around agriculture and food safety issues.

Those in attendance asked questions and talked and socialized with the speakers for an additional hour, clearly enjoying each others' company. During the clean-up phase, the kitchen buzzed with laughter from the dishwashers, and discussion of the learning that had happened. 'It makes you feel more connected,' was a phrase heard from several directions. 'I guess
maybe I'm not the only one doing what I'm doing,'  'Well you know,' said one farm woman, known to all as a dynamo of activity, 'It just made me feel real good about being a women, and you don't often get to feel like that!'

Made me feel pretty good too.