Women in agriculture push for structural change

The importance of education, networking and self-belief among women were highlighted at the inaugural National Dialogue on Women in Agriculture last week.

The conference, organised by the Department of Agriculture and chaired by former Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan at the behest of current Minister Charlie McConalogue, heard multiple calls for women-only training courses on technical farming issues.

Germany’s former agriculture minister Julia Klockner and Dairy Women Ireland chair Ciara Lynch both emphasised the need for women, who may have strong academic qualifications off-farm, to be given the opportunity to learn practical skills in a setting where they feel comfortable asking all questions without feeling vulnerable about their lack of knowledge.

The need to recognise life-long experience in a more formal way was also raised.

Edna Curley, principal of Mountbellew Agricultural College, pointed out that “academic learning is only one piece” and that she knew of “academically challenged people who would buy and sell everyone in the yard”.

Professor Maura Farrell recounted her experience of a woman who had come to her looking for help starting an agri-business, who already had a PhD in biochemistry.

“We need to ask women what areas they want training in and provide what they want,” Prof Farrell said.

“Sometimes we hear that women ‘need to be trained in social media’. That can be very patronising for someone who is running a high-powered business, or is trying to diversify on the farm.”

Almost all speakers touched on the significant challenge of family and caring responsibilities falling either solely or in the main to women. They suggested that tackling this requires frank conversations and structural changes for families, farms and workplaces.

However, both Prof Farrell and Glanbia Group managing director Siobhán Talbot said that things are improving in this regard.

Career

“Twenty years ago, when I started my career I had three small children and I spent more time trying to hide that I had them than anything else. I think it’s fantastic now, you’ll have men at the table saying I’m leaving here in 20 minutes because we have swimming lessons,” said Prof Farrell.

Flexible working has been a key focus for Glanbia, according to Talbot, with work-life balance and families in mind. She added that Covid-19 had taught companies that flexibility did not have to mean sacrificing productivity and, in many cases, it proved to boost productivity.

Ciara Lynch of Dairy Women Ireland added that farming, while stressful at times, could also offer very attractive work-life balance for families. She urged women farming to reach out and build networks of like-minded people.

Four workshops on the day focused on leadership and visibility; education and awareness; financial and legal; and sustainability, yielding dozens of suggestions on policy changes that will help women overcome barriers in the agri sector.

These included legal changes to farm and herd ownership, access to finance, micro-credentials for education, women-only groups and schemes, and the fact that without a viable farm income, there will be no opportunity to farm full time for many families.

Next steps

So what happens now?

The Department of Agriculture will compile a report on the outcomes from the National Dialogue on Women in Agriculture. This will include feedback from the speakers and panel discussions, as well as the results of four workshops.

The report, due to be completed and presented to Minister Charlie McConalogue within two months, is aimed at informing new policies and amending existing policies which affect women in agriculture.

“As part of our work with Dairy Women Ireland, we have had some harrowing calls from women who find out far too late that while their names are on all of the bank loans, they’re not on the milk cheques coming in. That is an area of grave concern.

“If the marriage breaks down, or if there’s a death, they’re struggling to pay bills at the end of the month, and that is not good enough.”

“Women in agriculture is by no means a new phenomenon. Absolutely not. That has been happening on farms for hundreds of years.

“Women that have been the backbone of Irish farms. It’s very important though that we’re looking at the discussion about getting names on herd numbers, and on bank accounts, things like that. There are definitely changes going on to foster development. That’s key.”

“Someone pointed out that farmers are always referred to as he. There’s your cultural change [that’s needed]. You have to be very cognizant of the use of language.”

“This year, the Government put into law, the gender pay gap [reporting requirement].

“Some people would have looked at that as a negative thing being reported upon but it isn’t. What’s being measured gets actioned. It takes a lot of time, but the conversations are definitely building in that space.”