Farm women want equality
This is one of the points coming through strongly from meetings held to progress IFA’s three year Equality Initiative, which targets farmers’ wives and women in farming to become more aware of the workings of the IFA ,and to get more directly involved in its activities at all levels.
Mary Carroll, IFA Equality Officer, said it is acknowledged that women are now contributing up to 65% of the labour input on farms, but only 10% of women in this country are farm owners and the level of participation in farm organisations by women is extremely low.
She said, “A lot of the task is getting the message out that there is a place for women in the IFA, and they should go along to their county executive meetings and get involved. It is only by getting involved that they can change things that they don’t like about it”.
The reaction from women has been very positive, with a large number attending meetings since the launch of the programme.
“Part of what we will be doing initially is looking at changes in policy to make the organisation more relevant to rural women. Some women may have felt that they do not have a role or a place in the IFA, but we want to make sure that they do have a role and encourage them to come along“, she added.
IFA are intent on broadening the range of discussion at their regular meetings to include issues other than prices, issues which may also have a lot more relevance for women, such as rural policy.
“If I can succeed in changing attitudes and perceptions, then I think we will have progress made at the end of the three years.
“I think that women themselves are losing out because they have not been involved and the organisation is losing out by not having them on board, and our target is to get many more of them actively involved“, she added.
The election of a woman leader for the IFA may be a long way off, but the image of Association is about to change for the better, as far as farmers wives, partners and family members are concerned.
