From the west of Ireland to the east of Germany, Stefanie Duesberg has visited the homes of over 30 female entrepreneurs, all in the name of FEMAGREE. This qualitative research project aims to identify the effectiveness of rural development policies in supporting female agricultural entrepreneurs.
“When I was younger, I didn’t consider myself a feminist. I thought: ‘It is all over and done. Everyone knows women can do what men do.’ But it doesn’t happen like that, we had to fight and fight to get where we are and we have to continue doing that,” says Stefanie.
As an employee of the department of agriculture in Munich, Stefanie feels that little empirical work has been done on evaluating the actual effectiveness of policies in promoting gender equality in the agricultural sector. FEMAGREE’s mission is to establish support tools which have been fruitful in the past and to look at how existing tools can be improved, as well as identifying gaps in the current support system.
Rural women in Germany and Ireland
Stefanie’s two case study areas are Bavaria, a region in eastern Germany, and the west of Ireland, both of which are characterised by outmigration of young women and a cultural dominance of traditional gender roles. Despite having no farming roots, Stefanie explains how FEMAGREE came to life.
“I moved to Dublin and lived there for many years, completing my PhD at UCD in rural development. My husband’s job took us back to Munich. I was looking for a new job and always wanted to work in the area of rural development. I approached the department of agriculture in Germany, to see if they were interested in doing some research. My initial idea didn’t go through, but they liked my personal skills and experience, so suggested that I pursue research around women in agriculture. That’s when I brought the FEMAGREE proposal to the EU, which was successful.
“I have done about 20 interviews in Bavaria and 13 in Ireland. What we are trying to find out is how we can encourage more women to start up their own agricultural business in a rural area. We want to be able to make recommendations to policy makers. Our overall objective is to improve the situation for women in rural areas.”
With a strong understanding of both environmental and social issues, Stefanie’s research has considered the difficulty of a perfectly balanced farm.
“We all know that it is difficult to make a living from farming. You can intensify in other businesses, but an intense farm will have a knock-on effect on the environment. You can farm organically on a very large scale, which is environmentally friendly. However, you will then replace people with machinery and the countryside will change, which has a negative social outcome.”
Unfortunately for female farm enthusiasts, there are still traditional challenges to overcome, Stefanie finds.
“In many rural areas, young women are leaving in greater numbers than men. This is because agriculture is still a male-dominated business. The figures speak for themselves: in Ireland, 82% of farms are male owned and 85% in Germany.”
Disproving myths
But with a little bit of unconventional thinking and a lot of passion, women everywhere are disproving old myths.
“Many of the women who participated in my agriculture project are very much about farm diversification. It makes agriculture more sustainable. Many are from farming backgrounds, while others have no farming experience. They are all doing it because they have a love for outdoors and food, not because of profits. They are creating businesses from passion.”
Having met with over 30 hardworking female entrepreneurs, Stefanie is delighted to report on the rural women she interviewed from both Ireland and Germany.
“A lot of these women were adding value to the raw farm produce, such as cheese making, producing meat with special value or farm-to-fork cafés. It is a lot of work and I am always amazed by them. If consumers knew how hard people work to produce their lunch, they would be shocked.”
Irish food for thought
Taking home some Irish food for thought, Stefanie has observed and taken note of many policies and programmes, which she plans to bring to the Bavarian table.
“Research has shown that lack of self-confidence and loneliness are the most common problems in female business start-ups, often ending the entrepreneur’s dreams. I came across ACORNS while doing my research here and I think it is a wonderful support. I look forward to recommending such an initiative at home in conservative Bavaria.”
Finishing, she reiterates her overall aim; to identify the real effectiveness for female agriculturalists, of rural development policies.
“I know in the last rural development programme in Ireland, gender equality was made a key issue, in writing. I have been looking and talking to gender equality officers in Bavaria who say: ‘We have nothing like that’. This is one of my main objectives when analysing my data: does it make any difference having it written down? If so, I would like to recommend it in Bavaria.”
Stefanie hopes to close her project by May, with results and findings complete. Keep an eye on Irish Country Living as we catch up with her.
'It was ACORNS that gave me the confidence to recruit and manage my staff'