Doing it for themselves
“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,” said President Mary McAleese, four years ago.
Women represent 30% of the agricultural workforce. According to the 1991 Census of Agriculture, 40,000 women contributed a 1,800-hour working year to the industry. They provide analytical skills, contribute to strategic development, “look after the books” and manage the ‘red tape’ of modern farming. Farm women are also involved in livestock care and provide ‘life support’ systems, as carers and household managers.
Yet, women are few in number at decision- and policy-making levels in agricultural organisations, and the enormous role they play in agriculture is often invisible to the public.
One reason is that farming has traditionally been regarded as “men’s work”. Another is that few women are farmer-owners, because they rarely inherit land: traditionally, the inter-generational transfer of farms is through the male line, and, since only owners are usually defined as farmers, the work of women on farms goes unnamed and unrecognised.
Women make up only 3% and 5%, respectively, of the IFA and ICMSA national councils, while the level for co-op boards is also low, at 3%. Women are better represented on Macra na Feirme and LEADER boards, at 25% each. There has never been a female leader of the IFA, the ICMSA or Macra.
Thankfully, there are exceptions: Anna May McHugh is the dynamic managing director of the National Ploughing Association; Maria Moynihan, the chief executive of the St Patrick’s Festival, in Dublin, held a similar post with Macra.
The reasons so few women are at decision-making levels in farming and agri-business are varied, but are mostly rooted in a male-dominated culture and traditional structures.
Women have advanced in the farming world since President Mary McAleese highlighted their role four years ago. An advisory committee on their role was set up by the Minister for Agriculture, Joe Walsh, and has completed its report, while the IFA and Macra joined forces to hold a series of seven, open forums around the country.
The feed-back from those discussions forms the basis for an exciting three-year IFA project to increase women’s participation. The IFA, representing 85,000 members, of whom 5% are women farmer-owners, appointed a female equality officer last year. Mary Carroll, from a farming background in Co Laois, said the forums gave a mandate for the recognition of the role of women in agriculture and for their increased participation in organisations.
“There are issues out there that need to be discussed and changes made, where necessary. We need women to be involved to get these issues to the forefront,” Ms Carroll said.
Issues of concern to farm women include PRSI pensions, childcare, care for the elderly, and access to public services in rural areas. Also, social policy relevant to farm families, such as health and education, rural stress, inheritance, herd numbers and joint ownership of farms.
The IFA project, part funded under the Equality for Women Measure of the National Development Plan, aims to increase the role of women in decision making. A key focus is to encourage women to become representatives, and provide them with encouragement and training. The hope is this will lead to a greater number of female IFA officers at county and national levels.
Rebalancing the IFA agenda, to increase the focus on social policy and social inclusion, is an important part of the programme.
The project is reaping results, with an additional seven women elected to IFA national committees during recent elections, and a county chairperson, Theresa Gilligan, in Co Sligo.
Mary Carroll says these measures are not about replacing men with women, or having one gender dominate, but are about partnership and balance. Changing the cultural mind-set to achieve this will take time, Ms Carroll said. An old saying applies here: ‘the longest journey always starts with a tiny step’.
Time is on Ms Carroll’s side: with the number of 18-year-olds on Irish farms projected to decline from around 5,000 per year to 2,000, in ten year’s time, because of low birth rates in the early 1990s, the ownership and management of family farms cannot be sustained unless more women enter the sector.
