Third-generation Idaho livestock producer Margaret Soulen- Hinson chairs the Idaho Rangeland Resource Commission and the Governing Board for the Policy Analysis Center for Western Public Lands; she serves on the Public Lands Council for the Idaho Woolgrowers Association and sits on advisory boards for the University of Idaho’s colleges of Natural Resources and Agriculture. These positions are a far cry from roles women traditionally have held in the industry.

Photo by Diane Ronayne.

“In the past,” says the 43-year-old Weiser rancher, “it was never the woman who sat down to negotiate with the [U.S.] Forest Service. Although women maybe weren’t out there in the forefront doing industry things, my mother certainly made it possible for dad to be very involved in them. She would be home, managing the kids and the house, taking messages, and dealing with issues that arose when he was out on industry meetings. Although women were maybe silent, they have always been critical to the operation.”

In her family’s business, started in the 1920s by her grandfather Harry Boone Soulen, duties are clearly defined: Brother Harry and dad Phil handle the day-to-day operations and Soulen-Hinson manages the finances. It’s also her responsibility to maintain good working relationships with state and federal management agencies. These can be complicated, since Soulen Livestock’s 8,000 ewes and 1,200 cows run on state and federal (Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management) grazing allotments as well as on 50,000 acres of deeded land near Weiser.

“It’s more complex than it used to be,” Soulen-Hinson admits. “You used to go to a meeting once a year with your ranger or visit over the phone about your grazing plan. Now you meet two or three times a year with not only the ranger but a fisheries biologist, a wildlife biologist, a hydrologist, and maybe someone from the [U.S.] Fish and Wildlife Service.”
Women bring a different perspective to such encounters, she says.

“It can be helpful in meetings where people are trying to find some sort of consensus. As a woman, you don’t have to have that macho thing. Livestock has been a male-dominated industry. Now the timing is such that women are taking a more active role in all kinds of industries.”

“You have to earn people’s respect. Whether you’re a man or woman, it’s not given to you.”

When they do, the bottom line still is integrity. “You have to earn people’s respect,” she says. “Whether you’re a man or woman, it’s not given to you. Your word has to be good, you’ve got to do what you say you will and be responsible. If you’re willing to work hard, people will accept a woman.”

For help, she turns to her elders—and to the University of Idaho. “The university people act as elders in some respects. We’ve always viewed the university as a resource for us, whether it’s a question of disease in livestock or asking them about markets (they do great market reports for us!) or telling us what we can do in a different manner, in a better fashion. On the sheep side of the operation, typically most veterinary work is through the Caine Veterinary Teaching Center, simply because the industry has become so much smaller that the practicing vets aren’t necessarily up to speed in or don’t do much sheep work.

“Our family is fortunate. Not only did my grandfather, father, mother, sisters, and brothers all get degrees from the University of Idaho, but we have a long history of good relations with the university, so we know what capabilities they have—and that is critical—and we can tap into those.”

Soulen-Hinson is proud that her son, Sam Campbell, is entering the university this fall, a fourth-generation rancher in the making.
 

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