The First Women in Agricultural Education

In the early twentieth century, white and African American women in North Carolina occupied jobs as farm laborers, mill and factory workers, and workers in other women’s homes.[1] The Cooperative Extension attended to farmwomen, but these women were not extended the opportunity to get a full four-year degree like their male counterparts until after the 1940s. When NC State opened, the Board of Trustees offered full degrees to women, but quickly retracted this offer and restricted full degrees to the textile major because the majority of the female workforce was in textiles.[2] NCCA&M created an educational hierarchy that classified women as special students who could only take a few classes in agricultural training such as dairying and general agriculture during the summer and winter terms. Although SALS allowed women to take these short courses, only white women were allowed into the program.

Were Special Students Empowered?

Were the short courses a form of educational empowerment? The story of female student Eula Louisa Dixon, and the large presence of special students in 1903 suggest short courses benefited women’s role in agriculture.

Eula Louisa Dixon was the first female student to enroll in Dairying, an agriculture related short course. Dixon already managed her family farm, but was inspired to learn about dairying. Through her dairying education, Dixon introduced advanced methods of farming and agriculture to her town, including how to test butter fat content in milk and operate a mowing machine.[3] Dixon successfully raised the standards in agriculture and cattle breeding in her Alamance community and paved the way for female students to pursue agricultural studies in a male-dominated program. 

The summer short course of 1903 admitted over two hundred women. [4] The influx of women from various counties and the surrounding states show that women perceived formal education as beneficial to their careers.

While NCCA&M’s Board of Trustees created barriers for white women’s access to full degrees in agriculture, these women could still pursue some form of college education and become empowered to apply that advanced knowledge to their jobs and their communities. Although doors were opening for white women, African American women could not attend NCCA&M and their access to agricultural education was restricted to the Cooperative Extension Service.