Many of you know that I’m a farm girl at heart, and that I find the country attitudes I grew up with invaluable to my professional life. So I was interested to discover this article that details the gender imbalance of regional boards, which tilts in – you guessed – a male dominated direction.

 The issues faced by the increasing number of female farmers are remarkably similar to those facing women in corporate sectors. The report Revisiting Missed Opportunities – Growing Women’s Contribution to Agricultureproposes that the traditional gender roles of the country mean women are doing most of the housework on top of their farming tasks, which eats away at the time they could be investing in attending meetings, joining boards and networking with regional board members.

The report also finds that the farming stereotype of “heroic masculine management styles” works directly against women. Like most professions, people are realizing that 6% of leadership roles in an industry that is 50% women is not good enough, and that “waiting for the pipeline to deliver is no longer credible”.

Read the full article here, and comment in the comments section below – what could women farmers do to increase their representation at a regional board level? (Short of mandatory watching of McLeod’s Daughters for all board members, to show women farmers doing their thing well!)