Letter: Importance of gender diversity

DEAR SIR:

“One of the main reasons women are not visible at the top … they are not visible at county or branch level” – Justin McCarthy

I was elected twice by local farmers to our local co-op advisory, I was 28 the first time and mid-50s at the time of the second election. I’m now the only woman (voted by my advisory) on the Glanbia council. I have been very visible at local co-op level for 30 years. The co-operative movement has been an anchor like the GAA in rural Ireland. My fellow council members all knew me after one meeting. It’s easy – I’m the only female. Do I know the men after two years? No, only the 20% - 25% that contribute regularly.

As a Glanbia council member, I would love to see change:

1 Pay the best price at base level for milk and grain. Do not use our co-op fund to pay ourselves a “top-up” to reach the base price. Let the GI base price be competitive in its own right.

2 Restructure the council and a new GI and co-op representative board code. (Our Castlelyons area possibly will have no representative on Glanbia plc and one on GI and co-op board from 2018 onwards). Our grassroots chain linkage to the “top” is shrinking fast.

3 Use a small few millions of our spin-out “stash” to give an interest-free loan to our qualified under 35s/40s to buy co-op shares in their own right. We need more women but we also need more young farmers interested in their main commodity purchaser business – their co-op. The Glanbia/Kerry co-op club membership is very valuable. Spin-outs are better than a “pension pot” so there’s no incentive to pass the co-op shares to the younger generation.

4 Loyalty. Every dairy farmer who signed a 10-year milk supply agreement with our 60/40 owned GII, showed 100% loyalty. Farmers are business men and women. Continued choice of fixed-milk-price schemes etc are very positive but the introduction of a divisive loyalty debate may be counter-productive.

Will I ever be ‘promoted’ to a higher Glanbia board level? Gender balance? Most unlikely! A plc board member recently placated/appeased me relating to Glanbia board co-options, and I paraphrase: “We are looking into sourcing a bright woman, who will bring experience to the table. I gather a name will be announced soon.” (May I respectfully qualify, it was not my local board member).

The reason women don’t get to the “top” – there’s a suspicion of us! We are usually brighter, well-educated and we’re not as ambitious as our men folk, so we speak our mind. We don’t play “politics” as well as men! In the co-op arena, women in farming partnerships rarely hold the voting rights. This is the main reason we women are in the minority. Husbands, partners, you can contact the share office and nominate the female partner to get the voting rights, especially if she shows more interest in co-op affairs than yourself. I would like to pay tribute to all my respectful male co-op gentlemen. They treat me as an equal. There’s a tiny minority that spoil the party, go fóire Dia orthu!

Ironically, I attended the same boarding school as Siobhan Talbot, our esteemed CEO. Our Mercy nuns told us to “respectfully challenge opinions”. I’m sure there will be a few feisty co-op colleagues telling me “I should use the proper co-op channels to air my views” but ...

Your editorial Mr McCarthy was a breath of fresh air. It gave prominent exposure to a key message. The time is here for gender diverse management in agriculture at all levels.