The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC) is bringing together almost a year of research in addressing barriers for women in agriculture.
Debra Hauer, a project manager of Labour Market Information with CAHRC, say over the past 20 or 30 years, an increasing number of women have entered careers in the agriculture sector, yet there still seems to be less women in senior leadership positions.
Hauer says they conducted a survey on the matter last year, and found almost half of women feel barriers exist for females in the ag sector. Hauer says one of the top barriers identified was balancing career and family responsibilities.
"Often with agricultural women, that would involve balancing a day job, their business — which would be their farm business — as well as family responsibilities. So for agricultural women, that's often an extra layer more than women in other parts of society," she says.
Two of the other top perceived barriers include the feeling of having to break into the "old boys club" and a lack of female role models in the industry.
Hauer says in order to address these issues, awareness is important. She says it's important companies consider female candidates when hiring for leadership positions.
"We're not talking about quotas or anything like that," Hauer says, "pick the best person, by all means, but please ensure there are women as well as men under consideration."
Source : Portageonline