Gender bias also afflicts agriculture

Re: Hursh: Women in agriculture can be a dicey topic (SP, Nov. 2) I am a full-time farmer and rancher in southwestern Saskatchewan. I did not agree with the content of Mr. Hursh’s Nov. 2 editorial in the StarPhoenix regarding women’s participation in agricultural governance.

Mr. Hursh claims that women “just aren’t interested in rural municipal politics or one of the many crop commissions” and that “women don’t have the time, or that isn’t where their interests and/or priorities lie.”

These statements are not only inaccurate but also dangerous, as they allow people like Mr. Hursh to overlook the barriers that exclude women from decisionmaking in agriculture and encourage individuals in power to maintain gender disparity.

It is time for the leaders in agriculture to see the absence of women for what it is — a gender discrimination that prevents women from directing the course of one of the most important industries in the world. We need to work together to achieve gender parity in the number of farmers and in the membership of agricultural boards. If women do hold specialized priorities, then decision-making without them is like steering a boat with a broken rudder.

As an effort toward becoming anti-discriminatory, agricultural organizations should make a board-level resolution to have women fill at least 30 per cent, if not 50 per cent, of their board positions. It will be easy for these boards to achieve gender parity and excellence at the same time as there are so many amazing women working in agriculture. The Women in Agriculture events are a good place to find them. Karlah Rae Rudolph, Gull Lake