Over Tilled: why some working women feel like dead dirt

I read an article recently featuring a headline with something along the lines of “one in four women considered quitting the workforce”. Hands up, that’s me. I’m one of those women.

Not because I don’t love working. I do. I’m just exhausted. Burnt out! I feel as though I have nothing left. In 2020, COVID, working from home, working on solutions for pivoting to online work and homeschooling, nearly killed me. And then menopause and adrenal fatigue showed up, and I fell over. Previously, I was someone who had a strong passion for my work. I lived for it. In 2021, I’m barely plodding through life.

A Global survey by Deloitte found 77% of women felt their workload increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. I feel this. The distinction between work and home has gone and now it feels like all work all the time. During the COVID lockdown, I found myself resenting my kids because they were interfering with me getting my work done. I still feel like this some days.

Interestingly, the same survey said that 66% of female respondents said they bear the most responsibility for household tasks. That number surprises me. Because the figure quoted is so low. All the women I know - friends, family, colleagues, my mother, my grandmother - have always ‘worked’ at home and at ‘work’. The fourth industrial revolution has created demands for 24/7 work schedules, placing more pressure on women who still do most of the unpaid domestic labour at home.

Most women know first-hand about the emotional, domestic and mental labour performed by women, usually in heteronormative relationships. A New York Times piece about contemporary ‘work-life and family balance’ explains how work-life/family balance rips off women workers. The article describes how ‘she’ works part-time, and ‘he’ earns six more times than her’.  But as the female partner says, during her ‘two days off’, she takes care of family business, child care, domestic chores, medical appointments, and the list goes on. If he has to work extra hours, the need to organise childcare isn’t a consideration for ‘him’ because he knows ‘she’ has it. But if she has to work extra hours, the onus is on her to find additional support to cover her domestic family responsibilities. He can’t because he has ‘work’.

This lack of equality is often explained as the work/family narrative and is used to rationalise women’s under-representation in senior roles and their over-representation in domestic ones. The work/family narrative often does not factor in the extra unpaid labour women do outside the home. For example, caring for aged parents and in-laws, caring for friends and family with complex health, mental health and or addiction issues, feeding and caring for pets, and the list goes on. I would recast the unpaid domestic labour performed by women outside of their paid work as their second or third full-time, unpaid jobs.

Back in 2010, according to a National Health Survey conducted in the US, women were more likely than men to feel very tired or exhausted. Similarly, a 2012 Forbes article described how 16% of women aged 18 to 44 reported feeling “very tired,” “exhausted,” or “otherwise worn out most days.” The modern working woman is the most educated we have ever been, but we still face gender gaps in seniority and pay. We are now working more (under) paid jobs and still doing most unpaid domestic labour. Because we are burning out, self-care is another job we need to add to the never ending to-do-list.

What does this have to do with Regenerative Agriculture?

Over 100 years of industrialisation of farming practices, clearing and mechanisation have had a severe impact on Australia's, and the Earth’s, agricultural land.  In the US, intensive over-tilling, monocrop culture, use of animal feedlots, a lack of cover crops, increased use of synthetic fertilisers and chemical pesticides have contributed to a decline in the nutrients, mineral and microbes that contribute to healthy soils needed to sustain healthy plant life. Climate experts suggest the earth’s soil, in some places, has been so stripped, cleared and degraded that it is unable to regenerate itself. This is particularly concerning when you consider 95% of our food comes from the soil.

Regenerative agriculture is utilised by a growing number of farmers taking an alternative approach to industrial farming since the early 1900s. Some would argue it is a return to the old ways. Taking a holistic approach to managing their land, regenerative farmers aim to improve soil health and increase biodiversity. Rudolf Steiner, hailed as the founder of Biodynamic Agriculture, gave a series of seminars in the early 1900s, proposing Biodynamics as an alternative to industrialised use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides and as a way to heal and revitalise the earth. Suggesting a holistic connection between the farmer and the land, the biodynamic farmer takes a spiritual, astrological approach to care for and maintaining a connection with the land, plants and animals, working towards creating healthy ecosystems and ensuring healthy soils.

Bruce Pascoe says Australia’s First Peoples had a similar approach and describes “one of the most fundamental differences between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people is the understanding of the relationship between people and the land”. In his book, Dark Emu, he says, “Aboriginal methods of land management were [both] practical and aesthetically pleasing”, but “there is still much to be learned about Australian soils.”  As Pascoe states, the Earth is the Mother. If we continue to ignore Aboriginal methods, “contemporary Australians will suffer as a result”.

Charles Massey, in Call of the Reed Warbler, talks about degraded ecosystems being unable to regenerate themselves. If left alone, these landscapes have gone past tipping points into new lower states of energy. I feel I have reached this point. Like that one in four women who want to quit their jobs, I am in a constant state of low energy and I can’t seem to recover. Thankfully there is a solution for those of us who may feel like dead dirt, unable to regenerate ourselves.

Rest

First, we need to go into a rest period. Massey uses the example of planned grazing where cows are kept out of the area needing regeneration. The earth is not tilled. No crops are sown. We can do it by taking time out from our paid and unpaid jobs and resting. Not just taking holiday leave to catch up on the things I haven’t had time to do in my paid job. Not just taking time out from domestic chores because I’m too sick to physically do them Massey means real rest.  Don’t let any cows on the field.  Let it rest, and regenerate.  This rest period supposedly allows for lots of mulching and changes in microbiology. Our burnt-out minds and bodies need this too.

Fertilise

In regenerative agriculture, this refers to adding healthy, all-natural cow poop. No synthetic fertilisers for a quick, artificial burst of energy. I am going to suggest this means taking some time out for us to fill our lives with something that enriches us. No junk food, or quick social media dopamine hits to get us through the day. But purposeful nourishing, enriching activities for our minds and bodies.  It might be painting, beekeeping, reading. Spending time in nature. For me, it’s spending time on the farm. I have found it recharges me energetically, spiritually, and emotionally. You will know what it is for you. If you don’t know, I think it means you need to rest more.

‘Deep Root’

This refers to ensuring you get good nutrients (I don’t know what you were thinking!). The rest period allows roots to go deep into the ground and tap into the soil's rich sources of nutrients. For us, it means to make sure you are eating well. Ninety per cent of the nutrition we get from food comes from plants, which get their nutrients from the soil. If we eat animals that eat the plant, we only get 10% of the nutrition from the plant. It is reduced even more through processing. Essentially, eat your greens. As an intelligent, educated woman I know this. But I have been too tired to cook, so I eat takeaway, and the cycle continues. So, I go back to step one, more Rest.

Work

Finally, you have to work. I am not talking about your paid labour or your unpaid domestic labour, but work with your landscapes. Know when to rest, know when to fertilise and see when you need to increase your nutrition. Massey describes five landscape functions. Put simply they are: capturing solar energy functions, the water cycle, the soil mineral cycle, dynamic ecosystems (biodiversity for health) and the human-social aspect. With a bit of reflection, these five landscapes have application within our own ecosystems. Make sure you don’t overgraze your fields. Get some sun, spend time outside. Drink water, eat good food, and be sure to fertilise your soil.  Make sure you have a biodiverse ecosystem - lots of plants and animals, no mono-cropping. And finally, manage your human-social interactions to ensure you have healthy, sustainable ecosystems. If you can, you may need to physically get away to get your landscapes in order. I plan on escaping to the farm to manage my own ecosystems. When it is all working well, you can go back to your paid and unpaid jobs with a greater sense of balance and an understanding of how to holistically manage the needs of your own ecosystems.

We need to better understand and care for the lands and bodies that sustain us. Regenerative farming not only benefits the soils, but it also helps the plants, the insects, the animals, the people, and even the weather patterns. The same can be said for busy, over-worked women in over-tilled lives. By taking the time to develop an understanding or our own ecological literacy, regenerate our own ecosystems – through rest, fertilising, deep roots, and mindful work – we help those around us.

By rejecting the neoliberal demands of the fourth industrial revolution, by saying “no” more often, and by prioritising the health of our own ecosystems, we can better support ourselves and those around us. Regenerative agriculture provides us with a frame of reference to reinstate the ‘sense of wonder and delight at being alive in a beautiful, mysterious world, along with an empathy and understanding of nature”. Massey says our heart must be involved. I tend to agree with him.

As a single mother, I often look in wonder at women like former Westpac CEO Gail Kelly, and Vice President Christine Lagarde and wonder how they do it. How do they run the world and show up for work on time, looking so poised and elegant with none of their kids breakfast down their front. I’m sure they take care of their landscapes. I’m off to take care of mine.

photo credit: Cathy Ross

Dr Faith Valencia-Forrester has combined her media experience, degrees in Arts, Law and Business, and her PhD in inclusive university-led work-integrated learning to help students gain experience and work toward having social impact. Her work focuses on social justice and actively demonstrates inclusion and equity. Her research into WIL has been instrumental in developing engaged connections between the university and the community. Faith tries to spend as much time as possible on her farm at Federal in the Noosa Hinterland.

Visit Faith's Griffith Experts page here.