Increasing Women's Participation in Agricultural Leadership: Strategies for Change

ABSTRACT This paper uses data from a survey of women involved in the Australian sugar industry to present evidence of the strategies which could be introduced by agri-political groups to increase women's involvement in agricultural leadership. Of the 181 positions of elected leadership in the Australian sugar industry's agri-political group, CANEGROWERS, none is held by a woman. Factor analysis of the 233 returned survey responses revealed that there are five types of strategies that could be implemented to address this inequity. These are: organisational strategies, education and training strategies, remuneration strategies, support strategies and practical strategies. The paper concludes by drawing attention to the fact that few strategies have been adopted by agricultural organizations to address men's numerical dominance of positions of leadership.