“WOMEN WILL TRULY BE EQUAL TO MEN THE DAY AN INCOMPETENT WOMAN IS APPOINTED TO AN IMPORTANT POSITION.”
– Françoise Giroud, French politician, journalist and writer
VISION AND COMMITMENTS BY 2025
WHY WE’RE WORKING ON THESE ISSUES
According to the 2021 agricultural census, women farmers make up 27.7% of owners and co-owners of Quebec farms. Thanks to our initiatives in recent years, the number of women elected in the Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) rose from 12% to 16%. Though this marks a positive step, the agriculture sector is far from achieving proper governance representation in its decision-making bodies.
Analyses of a variety of data sets between 2016 and today clearly show the reasons why women are less involved in agricultural bodies than men. Impostor syndrome and a lack of spare time due to family duties leave less opportunities for networking, which in turn reduces the chances of being approached to run for elected positions.
Training, mentoring and coaching, as well as creating a structure for effective communication between different decision-making levels of the organization, are vital in order to empower women, given that 65% do not get involved because they believe they lack the skills to serve in these positions of power.
At the 2021 UPA General Congress, a new union engagement action plan was adopted to increase the involvement of women and young people, though without setting clear targets and without specifics as to how to achieve this. While this is still a major win, the recruitment processes and certain other procedures need to be reviewed and adjusted to increase inclusion and achieve real diversity, particularly in terms of gender and age, and the LGTBQ+ and anglophone communities.
AGRICULTURAL PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS THEREFORE NEED CRITICAL SUPPORT IN THEIR DIVERSITY EFFORTS.
BY THE NUMBERS
(as of March 2023, excluding women elected as directors of Agricultrices du Québec syndicates)
Objective of having
of members elected to the executive committee be women
ACHIEVEMENTS
