Every time we run a feature focused on women - whether it’s the centenary of Rural Women New Zealand, a focus on women in leadership or our now-viral Girls in Utes series - I can almost feel the whispers coming: “Careful, it’s a bit heavy on the women this month.”

Let me make one thing clear. I won’t apologise for that.

In fact, I’ll double down.

Because for too long, women’s stories in rural New Zealand have been confined to the margins.

We’ve been photographed at bake sales, mentioned in passing as “farmers’ wives,” or asked how we juggle the kids while the real work happens somewhere else.

But here’s the truth: the real work is happening in the kitchen, in the calving shed, in the driver’s seat of a ute, and behind the desk at the farm’s office.

It’s happening in gumboots and heels, in boardrooms and back paddocks, in moments that rarely make the mainstream narrative.

So yes, our pages this month are filled with women.

That’s not an accident. That’s a correction.

We’ve just wrapped our Girls in Utes feature - something that started as a fun photo feature and quickly grew into a national talking point.

Shared widely across NZ Farming and NZ Farming Mums, picked up by ABC Radio in Australia, and praised by readers from Gore to Gisborne, it proved what I already knew: people are hungry for authentic, grassroots stories that celebrate who we really are.

And yes, a lot of “who we really are” happens to be female.

We’re also honouring 100 years of Rural Women New Zealand: a milestone not just of longevity, but of legacy.

These women have held up rural communities through floods and droughts, advocacy and activism, suppers and submissions.

If we gave them every page in this edition, it still wouldn’t be enough.

I’m proud to lead a farming paper that doesn’t just tick boxes for diversity but hands over the microphone.

And I say this as someone who grew up a farmer’s daughter, now navigating the field of modern media: I will refuse to reverse when someone tells me I’ve gone too far if I feel it matters to our rural sector.

Here’s the kicker: this isn’t just about women.

It’s about telling the whole story.

Click bait may generate clicks, but it doesn’t generate trust.

When rural journalism reflects the full spectrum of who we are - tough, tired, tender, tenacious - everyone benefits.

Why? Because you can’t be what you can’t see.

Our daughters see possibility. Our sons see balance. Our communities see truth.

So no, there won’t be fewer women next month. Or the month after that. Not while I’m in the driver’s seat.

And if that ruffles feathers? Well, good. Change often does.

By Claire Inkson