Women living, working and running businesses in rural areas now have a podcast and support activities focusing on their wellbeing needs and the unique challenges and solutions found when delivering a rural enterprise.
Jennifer Barnes and Carrie Orgee have been running a portfolio of rural businesses for the past 20 years and have come together on this passion project to share their lived experience launching on International Women’s day ‘accelerate action’ on 8th March 2025.
They want to promote the diverse rural working and living opportunities that surround us in the countryside. Girls and women often do not realise the wealth of roles available in rural enterprise and they hope that the podcast and support activities will inspire, support and help established businesses and the next generation coming through to thrive in 2025 and beyond.
They have also created a line of female-focus performance clothing and accessories which can be personalised with their name or company logo to promote their brand. 10% of the proceeds are going back into funding women’s wellbeing initiatives.
Reflecting on the past, women have made great strides in ‘breaking the grass ceiling’ yet there are still so many issues to tackle, wellbeing matters to discuss and solutions to share with each other.
‘Boys get sad too’ is a quote often heard. Jennifer and Carrie wholeheartedly agree with this and support equality across the board however the launch of ‘females in the field’ is the focus as their experience and expertise is as women in rural fields approaching challenges such as:
- women’s ‘unpaid invisible labour’ estimated at over $28 trillion worldwide
- that just 22% of rural work is by women
- the cost of living in rural areas is increasingly challenging such as transport and childcare
- nationally, financial funding goes to just 2% of female-led businesses in the UK
The podcast has a great line up already from big rural, TV and agri names such as Polly Gibb OBE, Ellie Pacey, Bronte Mitchell, Katy Tunstall, Bee Harford and Milly Fyfe. Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or Google Podcasts.
Females in their Field can be found at www.femalesintheirfield.com and Instagram @females_in_their_field