Women in agriculture - implementing equality commitments: research report

1 Introduction

Research commissioned by the Scottish Government in 2017 identified that women face cultural barriers in the agriculture industry. In response, a Women in Agriculture Taskforce was established.

The Taskforce delivered a report that recommended the mainstreaming of an Equality Charter to support agricultural businesses and organisations in their commitment to gender equality.

Gender equality commitments and initiatives have already been developed across a range of industries in the UK. However, there is a lack of robust evidence about the long-term impact and effectiveness of specific initiatives.

The key objective of this research was to analyse the success and impact of gender equality actions in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across industries that are comparable to agriculture and identify any implications for Scottish agricultural organisations and businesses.

This research was commissioned by the Scottish Government to explore effective ways of bringing about greater gender equality at a structural level within Scottish agriculture.

The Women in Agriculture Taskforce was established in 2017 in response to research commissioned by the Scottish Government which found that women face cultural barriers in the industry (Shortall et al., 2017). The Women in Agriculture Taskforce final report identified key themes that would bring forward real change and practical solutions to some of the gender inequality issues that exist in Scottish agriculture. The report outlined recommendations relating to key issues around leadership, training, childcare in rural areas, succession, new entrants to farming, health and safety and crofting (Scottish Government, 2019).

The report also recommended the establishment and mainstreaming of an Equality Charter into all Scottish agriculture and related policies. The Charter would support participating agricultural businesses and organisations in their commitment to gender equality. Although the pilot phase of the Equality Charter indicated broad support for the principles of equality and diversity, creating commitments for businesses of all sizes proved to be difficult to implement. Further evidence was needed to ensure that any new gender equality initiative within Scottish agriculture is appropriately designed and implemented in order to encourage long-term change.

Beyond agriculture, gender equality commitments and initiatives have already been developed across a range of industries. Examples of initiatives include changes to recruitment practices, training and mentoring programmes and flexible working options. However, there is a lack of robust evidence about the long-term impact of specific initiatives, how successful they have been and whether their effectiveness has been monitored and evaluated. This research addresses this knowledge gap by highlighting actions and commitments that have been implemented elsewhere.

Research aims and objectives

This research aimed to gather evidence on specific gender equality actions within industries that are comparable to agriculture. The key objective of this research was to analyse the success and impact of gender equality initiatives elsewhere and identify any implications for Scottish agricultural industry organisations and individual businesses.

This research has reviewed secondary literature and collected primary data through case studies of gender equality initiatives within UK small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)^[1] in other male-dominated sectors such as fisheries and aquaculture, construction and engineering. A lack of accessible examples of actions in small to medium-sized enterprises led to the inclusion of larger businesses as case-studies.

The main research questions to be addressed were:

• RQ1. What can we learn from case studies of gender equality initiatives in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in other industries and how can this inform the development of a gender equality initiative for Scottish agriculture?
• RQ2. How can the impact and success of these actions be monitored?
• RQ3. How do we encourage meaningful engagement with gender equality commitments and bring about long-term sustainable change within Scottish agriculture and its organisations?

Taken together, the answers to these research questions can help shape the development of a new gender equality initiative for Scottish agriculture.