Today, women represent about 25% of farm managers in agriculture. Despite their growing presence in the French countryside, women farmers are struggling to have their work recognized and their voice heard. They are under-represented in governance bodies, still too often suffer from a gendered division of labor within farms, and do not benefit from the training and tools necessary for their professional development and their increased skills.
The National Federation of Organic Agriculture (FNAB) is working on the place of women in organic farming and is undertaking actions to strengthen and revalue the work of women organic producers. The non-profit organization conducted a study in 2018, the results of which served as the basis for the implementation, from September 2018, of the “Women & Organic” project aimed at strengthening the place of women in organic farming. This project was supported from the outset by the Foundation, whose grant was used for drafting a guide about the installation of women in agriculture, the creation of a theatre-forum aimed at young people and the setting up of training courses on gender equality. These training courses developed a network of equality ambassadors, who have become awareness-raising relays and who regularly intervene with different audiences. The second phase of the project, launched in 2020, aimed at reinforcing the impacts of the project observed since its launch in 2018, and to encourage the dynamics that it has generated among the farmers who are members of the FNAB. The project has also fostered internal awareness and a desire to better represent women in the association’s governance bodies.
The FNAB, created in 1978, is the only organization for organic farmers in France. Its main missions are to provide national advocacy for organic farming and to support people (farmers or not) wishing to set up in organic farming. It has 16 employees and in 2020 had a budget of €2,270,930 (60% of which is public resources).
