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Under the current gender diversity policy in Australia, the country has increased the number of women on boards of its agriculture portfolio to 40%.
It marks a continued rise from 37% in December last year, with Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud stating that he’s pushing for a 50% representation.
"It's just silly to lock out more than 50% of the nation's intellect, whether you're in the corporate world, politics or education,” Littleproud stated.
"I'll be aiming to get to 50% representation across the boards in my portfolio – that's a sensible goal.
"Staffing levels in the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources are now at 51% women and 50% of senior executives in the department are now female."
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There has been a concerted effort to increase awareness of the role women have in agriculture in Ireland.
The Ceres Network was recently founded and held a conference which focused on the challenges of embracing diversity and effecting change in agri food.
There have also been a number of women in agriculture groups founded, which encourage women to highlight the active role they play in the agricultural community.
However, the number of sole female farm holders remains low at just 12% and the number of farms in joint female/male names stands at just 3.8%, despite women contributing to over a quarter of the labour on family farms.
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