Background
In recent years, MAF has supported a wide range of research into the social areas of sustainable agriculture, rural development and rural services.
Mary Jane Rivers' technical paper on "Overcoming the Barriers to the Participation of Women in the Rural Economy" highlights the need for gender equality in practice as well as theory if the barriers to the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices are to be overcome. This study looked at the diversity of rural and farm women's lives, and provided some insights into the barriers to their participation in the mainstream economy. It suggested how these might be overcome so that rural women can act to improve their own position and how policy-makers can take account of the life experiences and requirements of all rural people (men and women). Gender equality is needed for efficient use of the local rural resource base and the promotion of local economic growth.
Rivers finds that the roles of rural women are increasing and multiplying but that their greater responsibility and power in on-farm financial and decision-making areas go largely unacknowledged. While the special skills and potentially valuable contribution of these women to the wider rural economy remain generally unacknowledged, New Zealand's rural communities are less likely to achieve the sustainable agriculture and rural development opportunities available.
As a first step, women's lives need to be acknowledged, for example including both partners' names on rural area maps, businesses addressing correspondence to both partners and the media reporting equally the contributions of women and men to rural communities and the rural economy. Simple changes such as these not only acknowledge the reality of women's lives but also can make an enormous difference to the ability of women to contribute. By acknowledging women's real contributions, the perceptions and expectations of both women and men will change to facilitate the further participation of women.
While women's skills remain unacknowledged and unutilised, up to 50% of the human resource base is also under-utilised, hindering the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices.
The work of Rivers et al was subsequently published as "Change and Diversity: Opportunities for and constraints on rural women in New Zealand", MAF Technical Paper, 97/11.
Agriculture New Zealand was contracted to run a facilitation project to take the findings of Rivers et al and present them to groups of people.
The outline of the facilitation project was to organise and hold meetings with rural women and men, farm advisers (including financial and technical), rural policy decision-makers, farming media and others as appropriate to encourage rural women to take action to improve their own position and policy-makers/advisers to take account of the life experiences and requirements of rural women as well as men.
The objective of the project was to:
- Improve understanding by women of the actions they can take to become visible and heard in farming and other forums
- Improve understanding by women of the economic opportunities available to them
- Improve understanding by decision-makers/advisers/leaders and the media of the value of specifically calling on the expertise of rural and farm women in building the economic base of sustainable farm businesses and rural communities in general
- Build an agreed evaluation and feedback loop into the project
The end-use and benefits of the project are an increase in the visibility of rural and farm women, an improvement in how others value the activities of rural and farm women, the recognition of the importance of female life experiences in finding solutions and managing current issues of farm viability and sustainability, and the removal of barriers to the participation of women as entrepreneurs and workers in the economy.
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Rural Affairs Coordinator
Sector Performance Policy
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Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
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