Future policies to support female farmers should not be "pink washing" in nature, the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture has heard.

Associate professor at the University of Galway Maura Farrell said the Department of Agriculture needs to be congratulated on the measures in place in the current CAP to support women farmers.

However, she added that at EU-level there have been warnings to make sure these are long-term, sustained measures and not “pink washing”.

“We recently spoke at the European Commission and one of the women from the Commission talked about this idea of ‘pink washing’.

“She suggested that we just make sure this pink washing is not going on. We’re not in any way suggesting that’s what happened with the Department of Agriculture, because we congratulate them in the measures they have brought forward, we really, really do,” she added.

Farrell, who alongside colleagues has conducted research on rural and farming women, said the policies in place to support female farmers under the current CAP need to become an intrinsic part of farming.

CAP strategic plan

“We need to make sure those measures are stable going forward into the next CAP, that gender becomes part of the identity of the CAP strategic plan and it becomes part of the identity of farming.

“What you see now is that idea of a renewed interest in agriculture for women, because the policies are there,” she said.

Pink washing refers to superficial efforts to support women, when more pertinent issues are present.

Farrell added that Ireland is one of five EU member states to include some measures for gender in its CAP plan and one of only two to include specific measures.

Representation

Speaking at the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Farrell was critical of the lack of gender balance on the committee, as were some committee members.

There is currently no woman on the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture. Until recent months, Sinn Féin’s then spokesperson on agriculture Claire Kerrane sat on the committee but has since moved to a new brief.

“It is a disappointment that there are not women within this agricultural committee, when we’re trying to represent those women and make sure they have a voice.

“But it is not unusual, we have found this in many scenarios where women are not represented within those agricultural communities, within those farm representative bodies, particularly at a level where their voice can be actually heard,” she said.