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Carmen Bain, professor in the Department of Sociology, and eight Iowa State undergraduate students were invited to celebrate International Women’s Day at Corteva Agriscience in Johnston, Iowa, on Friday, March 6. The event was Corteva’s first International Women’s Day celebration as a stand-alone company, and provided an excellent networking opportunity for Iowa State students.

The ISU students, who are majoring in agriculture and society, agronomy, horticulture, and global resource systems, learned about Corteva’s role in the agriculture industry, their mission and the history of the company as well as its heritage companies: DuPont, Pioneer and Dow AgroSciences. The students toured the Johnston campus and met with scientists in the genotyping lab and the greenhouses to learn about their work.

After the tour, students ate lunch with Corteva industry professionals. Conversations ranged from current events in the agriculture industry to internship and career opportunities within the company, career development and more.

The day-long event ended with Bain’s keynote presentation, “Empowering Women in Agriculture: Closing the Gender Gap in Unpaid Labor,” to Corteva staff. Her talk focused on lessons learned from her work with women smallholder dairy farmers in Uganda. Tim Glenn, executive vice president and commercial officer at Corteva, also spoke. He described how the company is empowering women and providing them with agricultural opportunities around the world.

Students said the event helped them gain a deeper understanding of the roles that women play in agriculture, increased their knowledge of the professional opportunities within Corteva, and offered them a greater perspective of the importance of understanding global agriculture.

Article submitted by Taylor Lekin, sophomore in agriculture and society.