Albertine Ekkels-van ‘t Hoog (34) is a farmer’s wife. With her husband Bart and two partners, she is in the Koldermelk farm in Nijeveen. But if a seller or adviser comes to her yard, it happens regularly that he asks for the farmer. “You must clearly indicate that you also have knowledge,” says Ekkels-van ‘t Hoog. She doesn’t necessarily see it as discrimination, she says. “Rather as a missed opportunity from that seller or adviser to do business.”
Discrimination and exclusion of women is still common in agriculture, says Bettina Bock, professor of inclusive rural development at Wageningen University & Research. This has to do with, among other things, stubborn stereotyping. “Ask people what they imagine when they think of a farmer, and many see a hard -working man who does heavy work with large machines.” According to her, the same occurs in sectors such as the army, the fire brigade, the steel industry, shipbuilding. “I think it has to do with a primordial image of strength and danger. Women are seen as more vulnerable. “
The stereotypical image of a ‘farmer’ is still that of a hard -working man who works with heavy machines
There is also still the idea that a farm must pass from father to son. “In principle, there are no legal obstacles for a daughter to take over the company,” says Bock. But according to her it happens little, because the cultural and social norm is still that the son takes over the company. “That expectation is often aroused early in education.” She cites numbers from Norway. In 1974 there was a new law that states that the oldest child, regardless of gender, inherits the farm. But still only 11 percent of companies are now in the hands of a woman. “There are now more daughters who take over the farm than before, but it is still a minority.”
For International Women’s Day (March 8), the university has brought together a number of reports on the position of women in agriculture, which also serve as input for possible reforms of European agricultural policy. 2026 has been declared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Year of the International Farmer.
Grass ceiling
How many of the agricultural companies in Europe are run by a woman? “For the European Member States the average is 30 percentbut for the Netherlands it is 6 percent, “says Bock. According to her, that percentage is distorted, because it is only about farmers who are in the head of the company. “That is what statistics are currently limited.” The head of the company is the one who works in the company for most hours, and is the greatest size in terms of shares. “That is almost always the man. But the Netherlands has many farms that are run in partnership, and which also contains women. We counted that earlier. Then you come to 30 percent, similar to the European average. ” Front runners in Europe are Latvia and Lithuania, where 45 percent of the farms are run by a woman.
Bock cooperates in various EU subsidized research projects on women in agriculture. One is Grass ceilinga three -year project for the empowerment of rural women and promoting innovations led by women. Albertine Ekkels-van ‘t Hoog is taking on this project, together with around seventy other farmers from Spain, Italy, Sweden and Lithuania, among others.
In Latvia and Lithuania, 45 percent of the farms are run by a woman, in the Netherlands 6 percent
Ekkels-van ‘t Hoog is co-owner of the farm where she works, but she believes that that is not obvious. “Sometimes that is not a desired situation, for example at a company that has been in a family for generations.” The result is, she says that a woman may not have official decision -making authority, and does not build up any money in the company. “The fact that she does not get money for the work she does on the farm makes a woman dependent on the man.”
The Brussels bureaucracy can also get in the way. In Brussels, agriculture is known as a sector with independent entrepreneurs, not as a profession or company with employees. Bock: “Only in the latter case should you adhere to the rules against discrimination that the Directorate-General for Employment maintains.”
Social and local
Women in agriculture often start their business small, says Bock. They first want to try out what works – also to put too much financial pressure on the company, which is often (partly) in the hands of her husband, plus his family. “It is difficult to go against the normal state of affairs with new ideas.” Moreover, in the countryside, childcare, the school, the hospital is not next door, practical barriers for the farmer’s wife who also runs a family next to the company.
“But if a woman wants a small loan from the bank, it often turns out to get more difficult than a large loan,” says Bock. Loans are usually focused on technological innovations and on increasing production, which is intended for the world market. “The more cows, the more milk, the better. It should preferably be big and compelling. “
According to Bock, what women do is often rather social and local. They start a campsite next to the farm, or a shop, or a care farm. That is also innovative, but a bank does not always see that. “They often recover contact with their environment with such initiatives.”
Ekkels-van ‘t Hoog explains what it looks like with them in Nijeveen. They hold seventy cows and seventy young cattle on the dairy farm. In addition, they have set up a self -service store together. “People can buy milk, yogurt, ice cream, jam, cheese and eggs there,” says Ekkels-van ‘t Hoog. Her husband also keeps five hundred sheep, which burst parks in Nijeveen, Meppel and Steenwijk on request. “But I don’t get involved.”
She recently started her own business for herself. She develops a digital platform where farm spaces can be booked throughout the Netherlands, for example for meetings or workshops. “I have found 120 companies in the Netherlands so far that have a farm space. There are many more, but I can’t find them easily on the internet. ” In this way she hopes to bring more contact with ‘the beautiful countryside’. According to her, women in agriculture are more focused on connection with society than men. “I am not a tractor person.” It gives her confidence that she has been nominated for her initiative in the ‘Young Agricultural Talent 2025’ competition. “I don’t get forward so quickly. But now I think: okay, my idea is something! ”
She is also happy with her participation in the European project Grass ceiling. Peasant women from different countries can spar well together, she says. “You know each other’s uncertainties. You feel supported. ”
Photos Wouter de Wilde
Less debts
It is precisely because of the input of women that agriculture has started to look very different in recent decades, says professor Bock. After the Second World War, the focus was on scaling up and production, thanks to land consolidation and mechanization. “Due to the competition, fewer and fewer farms remain, that is still going on.” Women who marry a farmer are increasingly coming from outside agriculture, from their own profession. They help with the agricultural company, but also want their own career. They start that campsite, shop, care farm. “We see that these multifunctional companies are doing very well financially. They often have fewer debts than the pure agricultural company. “
The intensive, on production -oriented agriculture encounters more and more boundaries due to the emissions of nitrogen and greenhouse gases. The water quality also deteriorates because pesticides and (art) manestres end up in ditches and rivers via fields. Bock: “Agriculture moves to that multifunctional. To more sustainable, more nature -inclusive. Focused on the quality of life in the countryside, in which women play such an important role.
Nevertheless, the policy still focuses strongly on production increase, technical innovations and the world market. Bock also sees it with the current Minister of Agriculture (Femke Wiersma, BBB) and with the party leader of the BBB. Both are women, but they both stand for traditional agriculture. “What they show and hear is about production, production, production. They want to protect that. ” In addition, she sees a small but very pronounced and influential group of farmers, with the agro-industry behind her. “The producers of cattle feed, of machines, the slaughterhouses, who are very smart to keep out of the picture. They do not deserve so well from the multifunctional model, because it keeps processing and selling much more in their own hands. ”
“It would be good, and also just fair if the position of women in agricultural companies was formally better arranged,” says Bock. The policy should support a more diverse agriculture, which is not only focused on production and technological innovation. “That would be good for women, and the agricultural sector, and the Netherlands.”
