Striving for diversity and a better gender balance in the agricultural workplace should not be a "box ticking exercise", but one to add value and different perspectives.
This was one of the big takeaways from the Women in Ag panel at GrainGrowers' Innovation Generation conference, held in Adelaide last week.
Those were the thoughts of Sally Poole, an agronomist and digital ag consultant across the Southern Darling Downs and Border Rivers region in Qld.
Ms Poole said her slight build and piercings had raised plenty of eyebrows during her time studying and working in ag, but people had quickly realised her knowledge and worth once spending some time with her in a professional setting.
She said unintentional bias was often encountered by women in ag and it was everybody's responsibility to be welcoming and be aware of language that could be unintentionally offensive or exclusionary.
"Diversity is really important - it's not just a box ticking exercise," Ms Poole said.
"What diversity brings is a different perspective and a different way of thinking. It is so critical for our industry moving forward.
"We need to get a away from this idea of 'we've got a woman - tick'. We need to think who has the skillset, the innovative way of thinking that we can bring into our businesses and into our community."
The panel discussion was led by GrainGrowers Major Projects general manager Kaitlin Leonard and discussed some of the barriers women face in forging successful agricultural careers, but also how those barriers could be broken down.
She said women made up roughly 43 per cent of the agricultural workforce and represented about a third of those working on farm.
She said while women made up more than 50pc of graduates from agricultural degrees, only 18pc of ag management roles were held by women, with only 2-3pc of CEO level leadership roles held by women.
"We have phenomenal people in the industry, but these conversations are still really important to have because we still have a long way to go until we reach that equality and balance we're looking for and we know will lead to the best outcomes for our industry," Ms Leonard said.
She said promoting gender equality and diversity needed to be a collective effort and men had to be in the conversation as well.
"Men can be powerful advocates and by championing women within your family farming operation, within agribusiness, you can break down barriers, challenge a lot of biases and promote equal opportunity," she said.
Nutrien West Wyalong agronomist Kristie Freeman said a helpful way agricultural businesses could achieve diversity was by thinking 'don't hire yourself'.
She said there should be conscious efforts made not to play into stereotypes, like expecting women in the workplace to be the ones organising a morning tea.
She said including women in agricultural marketing material could also help young girls see agriculture as a career they can get into.
Plant a Seed for Safety founder Alex Thomas, who juggles responsibility as a parent, caregiver and business owner, said realising her self worth and putting a value on her time had been a huge challenge and was one faced by regional women everywhere.
She said it took more than a decade, and having a child, to be comfortable with putting appropriate value on her own time, rather than bowing to expectations of volunteering or providing services in exchange for networking opportunities.
"We (women) wear the hat of being the primary caregiver to children and often sick parents or people living with disability and wear a thousand hats in the local community," Ms Thomas said.
"I came to the realisation that the only person that can tell me what my time is worth is me.
"For all men and women, no matter where you sit within the agricultural ecosystem, we need to have a conversation about mutual exchange of people's value for the time, whether it's monetary or just putting your banner up at an event or whatever the case may be."
