‘Women have equally as much to contribute to the agricultural sector’

The UUP assembly member was speaking after the release of the Assembly Agriculture, Environment & Rural Affairs Committee report on the issue called ‘Breaking the Grass Ceiling’.

Mrs Barton revealed that almost a fifth of the workforce is female, but the vast majority of farms are owned by men.

“Over these past six months the AERA committee has been researching the challenges experienced by Women in Agriculture given that it is widely recognised that women make a very valuable contribution to the agriculture sector in Northern Ireland that is undervalued,” she said.

“There are approximately 25,000 agricultural holdings in Northern Ireland where women, approximately make up 22 per-cent of the agricultural workforce by helping out in an unpaid role such as supporting with bookwork, feeding calves and assisting with the milking, but 95 per-cent of these farms are owned by men.

“Increasingly women are now abandoning farming and working in other supporting, paid roles in the agricultural sector. The number of women farmers fell by 15 per-cent between 2006 and 2019.

“These statistics are evidence that women have to navigate a number of complex and difficult issues to get the recognition they deserve.

“There appears to be a historical legacy of culture and attitude, towards encouraging young women into agriculture in comparison to young men. There still exists succession and parental attitudes to daughters. Many still see farming as not a suitable career for women and the family farm is passed to the son, thus leaving a daughter who is keen to farm no right of access to succession land. Also there appeared to be an attitude that it was preferential that the family farm remained in the family name which would not be the case if inherited by a daughter who married. There was also a reluctance from the male owner of the farm to have the farm jointly owned with their partner.”

The MLA said there has also been a reluctance to introduce gender equality around the board room tables of some of the agri food industries which she added “may be as a result of the issues in farming”.

She continued, “Now that the different challenges for women attempting to break into the Agricultural economy have been highlighted hopefully steps will be taken to bring about positive changes for women including training and mentoring for positions within the agricultural sector.

“We live in the 21st Century, attitudes must change, women must be encouraged that they have equally as much to contribute to the agricultural sector and are equally valued, to instill confidence in themselves and thus give them positive experiences of becoming involved in the agriculture sector.”