Women Farmers of Snowdonia, 1750-1900

A considerable amount of research has been undertaken on the decline in women's agricultural employment during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but very little has been written about the position of women farmers. During this period, women farmers remained more common throughout Wales than in England. This study explores the part played by women farmers in the agricultural community of Nantconwy, a hundred in the eastern part of Snowdonia, Caernarvonshire, where women comprised up to twenty-two per cent of farmers during the period 1750 to 1900. It examines how and why women became farmers, and the role they played in running the farm. Four factors are suggested to account for the high proportion of women farmers in Snowdonia: a system of virtually hereditary tenancies, the inheritance of farm stock, the traditional nature of Welsh farming, and women's desire to continue farming.