Macra is bucking the trend on female participation in farm politics, according to president Elaine Houlihan.
Houlihan highlighted that despite low female participation in leadership roles in other farm organisations, Macra is recruiting more and more.
She was responding to Irish Farmers Journal analysis which showed low levels of female involvement in the leadership of the IFA, ICMSA, ICSA and INHFA.
Women in Macra
Houlihan, who is the second woman to head up Macra after Catherine Buckley’s election in 2007, pointed out that for 2021 to 2023, all of the Macra vice presidential team were female.
She highlighted that out of the 30 seats on Macra’s current national council, 17 (56%) are filled by women. This compares to the fact that just three (5%) of the 57 members of IFA’s national council are women.
The Macra president said that there are five female Macra national chairs and that there are 26 sitting on the organisation’s national sub-committees.
History
Houlihan contended that Macra has had a history of female involvement in leadership roles.
She highlighted that Mrytle Allen became the organisation’s first female vice-president in 1960 and that there has been 11 other women who have taken on the role since then.
The young farmer leader also noted that Macra had its first female national chair in 1993, Sandra Ryan.
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