Bid to enhance role of women in agriculture
That’s because they rarely inherit land due to the inter-generation transfer of farms through the male line. Yet, they still contribute almost 30% of the agricultural workforce.
They provide analytical skills, contribute to strategic development decisions, look after “the books” and deal with the red tape of modern farming. Farm women are also very involved in livestock care and provide “life support” systems as carers and household managers. And still their numbers are low at decision-making levels in agricultural organisations and in policy-making.
These thoughts emerged yesterday - International Women’s Day.
Women only make up about 3% and 5% of the respective IFA and ICMSA national councils, according to relatively recent figures. The level for co-op boards is also low at 3%. Macra na Feirme and LEADER boards do better, however, with a 25% representation each. There has never been a woman president of the IFA, ICMSA, ICSA or Macra na Feirme, but there are other exceptions, with Anna May McHugh providing dynamic leadership as the managing director of the National Ploughing Association, while the Irish Countrywomen’s Association has also played an admirable role over the years.
Last September, Mary Coughlan became this country’s first women Agriculture Minister and recently, Angela Kennedy was appointed the first woman chairman of An Bord Bia, both indications that females are coming more to the fore in decision-making at a time when the EU also has its first woman Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Mariann Fischer Boel.
The reasons so few women are at the decision-making level in farming and agri-business are varied and mostly rooted in a male dominated culture and some deep-rooted structures.
Yet, as President Mary McAleese noted a few years ago, there is constant need for fresh ideas and new approaches as the concepts of traditional farming change with world shifts in production, consumption and market trends. “By the engagement of more and more women in farming, a new wealth of talent is being brought to bear, which can only have a positive impact on the success of the industry and on rural life.”
An official advisory committee on the role of women in agriculture produced a report some years ago. And the IFA and Macra joined forces to hold a series of seven open forums around the country.
Feedback from those discussions formed the basis for a three-year IFA project to increase women’s participation. Part-funded under the Equality for Women Measure in the National Development Plan, it aimed to increase the part played by women.
Mary Carroll, who co-ordinated the project, which formally ended last December, said a significant increase in the number of women on IFA committees was among the high points.
“One of the main legacies of the project, however, is the one which is the most difficult to measure - the very important changes we have seen in attitudes and perceptions in relation to women in agriculture,” she said. An indication that old attitudes are changing was seen last week when the IFA adopted an initiative as part of its structural reforms to enhance the role of women in the organisation, a move welcomed by Ms Coughlan.
“I think that such a measure will have the effect of giving farming and rural women greater access to the decision-making process, at both local and national levels,” said Ms Coughlan.
The minister correctly drew attention to the fact that the women of rural Ireland have been the backbone of farm families down the generations.
