by: Barbara Jenkins 

Before electricity, women were bound to their homes, not by choice, but by necessity to survive. Cooking consisted of leaning over a hearth or brick fireplace. Laundry dried out on a line, and dishes were washed out of a barrel of well water. Children learned by candlelight. Women helped their families with various farm duties monopolized women's time and energy.

The dawn of rural electricity, thanks to the Rural Electrification Administration Act (REA) created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937, resulted in the revolution of women's independence both in and out of the home.

Electric appliances for cooking and cleaning appliances provided the freedom of time, allowing women to expand their daily activities. Women began searching for more meaning outside domestic duties, finding their way into community involvement efforts and even out-of-home employment opportunities. 

Over the next eight and a half decades, women's roles in the home and society have significantly shifted. Modern technology, coupled with the vast majority of women having access to electricity, has created an environment where women are more powerful than ever. Whether women are stay-at-home mothers, work full-time in an office environment, or work from home, the ability to provide for their families and themselves is a stark difference from their grandmothers and great-grandmothers.

Women are empowering themselves and other women to be successful in a plethora of professional and domestic fields, including in their local rural electric cooperatives. Arkansas Valley Electric Cooperative currently employs 42 women in roles that span Information Technology, Dispatch, Engineering, Member Services, Multimedia Communications, Finance and Accounting, Human Resources and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Two women, Paula Caswell and Belinda Hutchinson, also serve on the board of directors. Caswell, the 2023-2024 AVECC Board of Directors President has served on the board since 2011.

Paula Caswell ; AVECC 2023-24 Board President

 

She followed in the footsteps of her father Charles, who served on the board for 44 years. Paula's great-grandfather, "Uncle John Hobbs," was one of the founding members of the cooperative and served on the board of directors for 20 years. 

Following in her family's footsteps, Paula became a cooperative leader as the first woman to serve on the AVECC board of directors and the first female board president to serve on the board in AVECC cooperative history.

Paula is proud to be a leader of change at the cooperative, although she doesn't believe her role should be classified as "special." 

"At the end of the day, my job is simply to serve the membership to the best of my ability and the board's ability. Our bottom line is always providing reliable power at the most reasonable cost to our members," Paula shares. 

Women's roles in cooperatives and society have drastically changed over the last 86 years since the first rural light was turned on. Those roles continue to evolve as more women encourage others to pursue roles that inevitably shape the future of rural electric cooperatives and communities worldwide.

Photo L-R: Katie Yell, Dispatch; Caitlin Forst, GIS; Lauren Robinson, Director of

Finance and Accounting; Samantha Renard, Engineer