friday, October 30, 1981
daily nebraskan
page 7
Women find career opportunities in agriculture
By Carol Harrah
Agricultural careen are predominately
male-oriented, said three women Wednes
day who were participating in a panel dis
cussion about women in agricultural
careers.
Barbara Busch, a 1980 agricultural
graduate from UNL, said that having a
background in ranching made it easier to
get her job as a soil conservationist with
the Soil Conservation Service in Mullen,
Neb.
"I go out and talk to ranchers about soil
conservation and how many cattle they can
have on their land," she said. "Since I grew
up on a ranch, I can start a conversation
easily with the ranchers and they are more
responsive to me."
Busch said she works mainly with men,
and her rural background helps her to be
more at ease in her job than men from
urban backgrounds might be.
"I work in a male-dominated job. I get
used to seeing very few women. There are a
lot of men with urban backgrounds that
don't understand the ranchers,' Busch
said.
They aren't accustomed to seeing a can
of chew in the back pocket, the boots or
the leather belts with names engraved on
Fellowships
for minorities
to be awarded
The National Research
Council plans to award ap
proximately 34 Postdoctor
al Fellowships for Minorities
in a program designed to
provide opportunities for
continued education and ex
perience in research to
American Indians and Alas
kan Natives (Eskimo or
Aleut), Black Americans,
Mexican AmericansChica
nos and Puerto Ricans.
Fellowship recipients will
be selected from scientists,
engineers and scholars in
the humanities who "show
greatest promise of future
achievement in academic re
search and scholarship in
higher education."
In this national compe
tition, sponsored by the
Ford Foundation, citizens
of the United States who
are members of one of the
designated minority groups,
who are engaged in college
or university teaching and
who hold doctoral degrees
may apply for a fellowship
award of one year's dura
tion. Awards will be made in
the areas of behavioral and
social sciences, humanities.
EMP fields (engineering sci
ences, mathematics, physi
cal sciences), life sciences
and for interdisciplinary
programs of study.
Tenure of fellowship
provides postdoctoral re
search experience at an ap
propriate nonprofit institu
tion of the Fellow's choice,
such as a research univer
sity, government laboratory,
national laboratory, privately-sponsored
nonprofit insti
tute or a center for advanc
ed study.
Further information and
application materials may
be obtained from the Fel
lowship Office, National Re
search Council, 2101 Con
stitution Avenue, Washig
ton,D.C. 20418.
Correction
A story in Wednesday's
Daily Nebraskan incorrectly
reported that two security
guards watch outside the
ward doors at the psych
iatric unit of Lincoln Gen
eral Hospital.
There are no security
guards in the ward.
them. I am familiar with this and what
type of work the ranchers are involved in."
Male-dominated field
Pat Waldren, sales representative for the
CIBA-GEIGY (Monsanto) Corp., said she
also works in a male-dominated field. She
has been working there for three years and
said the toughest part of her job was be
coming accustomed to the way men inter
act with her.
"Men usually shake hands with each
other when they are. being introduced to
each other" she said, "and that is different
for me. I was brought up to keep my hands
to myself, the normal things girls are
taught."
She added that it was awkaward the
way farmers would pay attention to what
she was saying in a one-to-one situation.
"They would lean their shoulder against
mine and I had problems with this at first,"
she said. "I then realized that this way
their way of showing that they were pay
ing attention to you. It was hard to adjust
to the ways men physically interact with
each other.'
Shelly Burcham, a loan officer for the
Federal Reserve Land Bank in Red Oak,
Iowa, and a 1981 UNL agriculture graduate
said she was the first woman loan officer
there, which has been a big adjustment for
a lot of people.
"I get women calling up about their
husbands loans and they want to speak to
a loan officer, she said. "After some argu
ing with some people, I finally have to say
'But I am one off the boys,' before they
understand that I'm not a secretary.'
The women talked about having careers
and families.
Waldren had her children before she be
gan her career.
"A woman should never get a new job
and begin a family at the same time,"
Waldren said. That would be too hard on
a person to do both at the same time."
Burcham said that in her job, she feels
it is impossible to be tied down with a
family at the moment.
"My job isn't a 40-hour-per-week job,"
Burcham said. "I work nights and some
times on the weekend, and if I had a family
I would never get to see them."
Advancement opportunities
All three panelists said they had good
opportunities for advancement in their
jobs, but some had trouble dealing with
old-fashioned values.
Busch said her parents taught her the
traditional roles of the man working and
the woman staying at home with the child
ren. "My parents put forth the idea that the
man works and the woman is always bare
foot and pregnant" Busch said. "I don't
hold anything against them because that is
how they were brought up.
"Since I work for the federal govern
ment, I have terrific opportunities for ad
vancement. It doesn't matter if you're a
woman or a man. My dilemma is not if I
can advance and move up in my job," she
said, "but more on the line of should I
move upwards in my job.'
Burcham said, "You think that you get
a lot of pressure in college and know how
to handle pressure. But I deal with a differ
ent sort of pressure than 'I have two tests
tomorrow, will I make it?' I decided if
people will or won't get loans, and that is a
big responsibility and pressure," Burcham
said.
Waldren said mobility is very improtant
in landing a job.
"If you can't move into a different part
of Nebraska or another state, you'll have a
hard time landing a job," Waldren said.
"Mobility is very important in starting out
with a company."
Lincoln professionals are quickly discovering the
Daily Nebraskan as
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