“Women have been working tirelessly for generations in the agricultural sector with no formal recognition,” Niamh Hendy has told Agriland on International Women’s Day 2022 (Tuesday, March 8).
Agriland previously reported that, according to data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), less than 1% of farms in Ireland have a woman registered as an official partner – just 1,258 farms out of 137,000.
Niamh Hendy originally studied law in college and works as a legal editor, but she has always had a background in farming, helping out at the weekends at the beef and tillage family farm in Kilcrow, Co. Kildare.
Through her work with the Irish Grain Growers’ Group (IGGG) and the Women in Agriculture Stakeholders Group (WASG), she started lobbying and realised that there were not many women around at the mart or in farm meetings.
Speaking to Agriland, Niamh said that she comes from a long line of female farmers who would have worked just as much as their male counterparts, however without being recognised for anything. She stated:
“There are so many women in Ireland getting up every morning and working on the land. Women are in the industry, they are just not officially recognised.”
The Hendy farm is now in its fourth generation and both Niamh’s grandmother and grandaunt would have worked on the farm, as well as her mother, after marrying her father and taking on farm life.
Niamh herself is currently working on her green certificate and in the process of being registered with the intention of forming a partnership next year. She stated that she is the first female to be recognised in an official role in her family.
In terms of pension or official payments, women are left behind, Niamh stated, and added that she advocates for inclusivity so that women are recognised officially on single farm payments and farm partnerships.
Working on the Hendy family farm alongside her father and brother, Niamh said she has always had a very inclusive experience as she comes from a line of female farmers.
However, she added that other women don’t have a similar experience and she would be very conscious of that in going about her work in farming.
“I know a lot of women have trouble even dealing with the department [of agriculture] because their name is not on documents,” she said.
Speaking to Agriland, Niamh stated that it is time the “patriarchal structure is overhauled”. She explained that land is passed down to the son and, she added, there remains the fear of the name.
“There is the fear that if the daughter gets married the farm will change names. I think, it is still a big part in Ireland at the moment.
“In my case, the Hendy farm, previous generations would have preferred to pass it on to a son who would carry on the name,” Niamh said.
‘Oh you are a great girl helping on the farm’
Based on results from a campaign by the WASG, Niamh said women’s experiences in farming are “negative more so than positive”.
In her personal experience, she said the vast majority of men have been accommodating, however “you do find the odd couple that aren’t and they would have… kind of… sexist views including condescending comments”.
From the outcome of that campaign, Niamh said, she knows that a lot is based on this notion of “oh you are a great girl helping on the farm”, but no one officially recognising the role that women play, “which is just as important than that of men”.
“A man coming into the yard looking for the boss, but he overlooks you because you are a woman so you can’t be the boss. It is little things like that.”
For Niamh, it is important to create a dialogue around the issue and for people to recognise women in the industry – to make it more inclusive.
“If you go to the mart or any of these places any day of the week, you see predominantly men, and women are few and far between. I think it is just about making those places more inclusive so that women feel comfortable there,” she added.
Niamh added that, particularly for younger females, such a situation can be quite intimidating. In her opinion, there is not enough support for women to get into farming, “not at all”.
However, the increased rate of grants of 60% for women aged 41-66 years under Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes (TAMS), according to Niamh, is a “great incentive to have women recognised officially on farm partnerships whereby they can receive payment”.
Many women working on farms might not even think about the fact that they are not registered and that they don’t have access to those services. She added that it is about encouraging younger people to be officially recognised on paper.
“I think it is important to have a gender balance in all industries because men and women bring a different perspective, and, from that point of view, it helps the industry to prosper and grow,” Niamh Hendy concluded.