Out of the ICSA, ICMSA, IFA and INHFA, only the Irish Cattle and Sheep Association (ICSA) has more than one woman visible at a senior level, with eight women in total on the national executive.

The Irish Creamery and Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) does not have any women on its executive board and every chair at county executive level is male.

The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has only one woman sitting on its 53-member executive council, and the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) also suffers from a similar lack of female representation.

Young farmers

Macra na Feirme, the rural youth and young farmer organisation, has had one female president, Catherine Buckley. She was elected for the 2007- 2009 term.

In Northern Ireland, Roberta Simmons was president of the Young Farmers Clubs of Ulster between 2015 and 2017.

Leadership

A lack of leadership on the part of farm organisations was pointed out as a key reason as to why women were not more involved at senior level at the recent Women & Agriculture Conference.

The former president of the Federation of Swedish Farmers, Helena Jonsson, said during the conference: “This is a question of leadership, you have to have support from the highest level … Joe Healy would be the one to put this in place.”

There are plenty of women farmers who are very capable – they just need to step forward and get elected.

This sentiment was echoed by the ICSA president Patrick Kent who stated: “We have been actively encouraging more female participation and with eight members already on the national executive, we expect it will be a welcoming place for even more women. The issue will remain high on our agenda.”

IFA president Joe Healy stated at the conference that the organisation was putting a committee in place to review the lack of female representation at senior level.

Read more

Women & Agriculture: should gender quotas be introduced in farm organisations?

Women & Agriculture: ‘One woman representing all the women in this room is criminal’

TAMS II: applications by farm size and latest update on approvals