Rural women push through the “grass” ceiling

Westpac Agribusiness is celebrating the United Nations International Day of Rural Women on 15 October by highlighting the innovative work of two Australian rural women: Sarah Powell, winner of the 2015 RIRDC Rural Women’s Award (sponsored by Westpac Agribusiness), and Ella Shannon, winner of the Westpac Innovation Challenge.

“I’ve met a number of extraordinary women across Australia who are making their presence felt by innovation and we are seeing a wave of extraordinary rural women pushing back against the ‘grass’ ceiling and making their presence felt in Australian agribusiness,” said Steve Hannan, Westpac’s General Manager Agribusiness.

“We are proud to support and champion exceptional women in Australian agriculture, such as Sarah and Ella, who are not only making a huge difference in their own worlds, but inspiring other rural women in Australia to set their sights high and step up to the challenge of succeeding.”

Sarah Powell is a South Australian mixed farmer, community leader and advocate for rural women and youth, who won the RIRDC Rural Women’s Award in September 2015 for her “Champions Academy” pilot project, which builds future leaders through sport and mentoring, instilling values of acting with integrity, thinking selflessly and showing commitment.

“Too often, women in rural areas – and elsewhere – wait for permission to speak up, or to be celebrated, or to take opportunities,” said Sarah.

“I’d like to believe that the days where women may have been limited to more traditional roles in the home, workplace or industry are behind us, and perhaps today the constraints are more to do with the tyranny of distance created by the availability of reliable, affordable rural and regional communications technology and the adequacy of infrastructure to support entrepreneurial spirit in agriculture”

“However, women in rural Australia are achieving fantastic things, not only as partners and members of family businesses, but as strategic individuals in their industries, driving change and innovation.

“The International Day of Rural Women is a chance for them to step up, be in the spotlight, promote themselves or their industry or their cause, without feeling they are being arrogant – though I look forward to the time when we don’t need a special day to single out women!”

Ella Shannon, who won the $40,000 Westpac Innovation Challenge prize in September 2015, was raised on a sheep and cattle farm near Yass NSW and studied resource economics before working for agribusinesses around Australia, seeing first hand how labour shortages are holding farms back from reaching their potential productivity.

“I started AgTasker to help farmers find a better way of finding good casual labour. It needed to be built for farmers – which means being user friendly, and incorporating word of mouth connections through a review and referral function, so a farmer can feel comfortable about hiring someone to come onto the farm, operate expensive machinery, and do a good job.” She said.

“International Day of Rural Women is important because it emphasises the strong network of inspiring women we have in agriculture who whilst taking on their own amazing ventures are still so willing to help others like me develop our ideas and make them a reality. “

The opportunities for women in Australian agriculture are huge at the moment – there is a willingness across the industry to look further than the typical skills essential in the paddock, we need to embrace innovation and skill diversity.”

Steve said he hoped that spotlighting the achievements of women such as Ella and Sarah would inspire other women in agriculture to pursue their goals and look for innovative ways of driving Australian agribusiness into the future.

“UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says that collectively, rural women are a force who will drive global progress, and I congratulate Ella and Sarah on their innovative work in this direction,” he said.

“These are the kinds of projects that are seeing Australian rural women blazing a trail and making a difference – in Australia and beyond.”

Melanie Elms