No glass ceiling to thwart ambition

Who’d have thought it? The maledominated English NFU elected a woman to be their president.

Her achievement blows out of the water the standard excuses for women’s failure to make progress in farming and agri-politics. Women can make it to the top, just the same as men. It takes the same dedication, sacrifices and single-mindedness and Minette Batters made it on merit.

Is there a Scottish version of Minette Batters waiting in the NFUS wings? Another all-male list of NFUS directors would suggest there isn’t, and nobody can remember the name of the last female member of the NFUS board.

NFUS has been prodded into action to get more women more involved. It’s commendable, just so long as everyone understands what it is that they are trying to achieve but recent press reports suggest the penny may not have dropped quite as far as it needs to.

It seems that it’s now the norm for all-male NFUS contingents to be asked ‘where are the women?’ when they meet with delegates from more gendersensitive organisations.

It’s a conversation-stopper, if ever there was one, but it has prompted NFUS to think that a woman is now needed to open doors, lend them credibility – and then what for the token woman? Sit quietly in a corner while the men work through the meeting agenda? The reported comments could have been better expressed, but the underlying sentiment is unmistakable and more work on the NFUS corporate mindset is clearly needed.

From what we’ve seen so far, it seems the NFUS strategy for the sisterhood is to offer a menu of events for women – an NFUS Women’s Network, womenonly education and training events, women-only tables at the flagship NFUS AGM dinner.

All very warm and sisterly, but shedding women off into a special-case minority pen has alarming similarities to the ‘safe spaces’ now deemed essential for the overly sensitive.

Not much is being done to get women members involved in the more hostile environment of agri-politics and leadership.

To be fair, women in farming unions are reluctant to set foot on the leadership ladder and Minette Batters is the only female NFU director.

Farming unions, from the UK to Australia, are voicing concerns about the problem of non-engagement of women. Or to put it another way, the problem has always existed but was never seen as a problem until gender became a hot international topic.

Farming unions are now scrambling to appear more in tune with the times.

So what’s to be done? If the problem is that too few women are participating in a male-dominated organisation, then surely the solution must involve both sexes working together.

Women can’t be compelled to become involved in something that doesn’t interest them, and it seems very few are interested in active participation in farming unions.

But for those who are, there is no glass ceiling to prevent them aiming for the top. If there ever was one, Minette Batters smashed it.

It seems that it’s now the norm for all-male NFUS contingents to be asked ‘where are the women?’

Picture: PA. Minette Batters is the first female president of the NFU in its 110-year history.