We live in a time where pretty much anything can be seen and heard in real-time. With instant messaging and 24/7 news updates, it is easier than ever for the dairy industry to fall into making stereotypical assumptions based on a person’s gender, culture, religion, or physical attributes. The global dairy business has never been so in-the-screen-faces of their dairy consumers and their own competitors.  When the supply chain is disrupted, you know it. You see the empty food shelves?  You see the protests. When animals are mistreated, it is shown in shocking close-ups. Gender equality is instantly highlighted in the news. Instant data inspires instant analysis.  But to be fair, instant analysis can also be instantly misleading. 

Dairy Miss-Information Versus Historical His-Information

Dairying is not a male or female thing.  Everyone reading this article can point to numerous recent Blogs, Seminars, Magazine articles and Research papers to support their position. I bring this up because of the “rock and hard place” situation many of us find causing division in our own workplace.  His-story versus Her-story.  Must the work of dairying be one gender or the other? Although it is easy to acknowledge the progress of positive examples, it is impossible to eradicate bias completely.  We have all been raised with some form of gender bias. If we must play the gender card, we have already fallen into the gender trap. We either “act” like a boss knocking at the door or is the door being opened to all. Is there a welcome mat or a doormat?

PROBLEM? DISPARITY OR LACK OF CLARITY

Throwing out the Ladies and the Boys’ Club with the Bathwater

Sometimes the easy question asked by women is, “Are we are own problem?” The easier answer is: “We are all part of the problem.”  Female decision-makers are just as biased as men. It follows then that we are all part of the solution. Men are in positions of power where they can (and do) help the women in their organizations rise to the top. Helping anyone rise isn’t measured by a pat on the back or a verbal, “way to go!” Sometimes the most help is a informative analysis of the job requirements accompanied by the strengths and weaknesses of the person.  This opens the opportunity to improve and grow in the position. Clarity isn’t just positive, sometimes it requires recognition of what may hold the person back. Regardless of gender, workers need to be clear about qualifications, on job training, reimbursement, and incentives. The real pros and cons are not pro gender or con gender. The more we can work together to create positive change, the faster that change will happen. 

THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE POWER OF THE GENDER GAP

We all have been conditioned to jobs that are Ma’am power or man-power. When you see a dairy job discussed, do you have an automatic gender response?           

• Calving
• Bookkeeping
• Team boss
• Board representative
• Expert nutritionist
• Genetic Advisor
• Dairy Cow Vet

Beyond the Glass Half Full

There was a time when we didn’t talk frequently about Glass Ceilings in the workplace.  Now we have added the Glass Cliff. Glass Cliff refers to the phenomenon of women in leadership roles, such as business executives in the corporate world and female candidates for political office, being more likely than men to be promoted to leadership roles during periods of crisis or downturn, when the chance of failure is highest.

We might live happily with the “Glass Half Full” but now we have “Glass Walls” and “Glass Elevators” which refer to institutional barriers that isolate some employees — traditionally women and minorities — into jobs that don’t lead to executive advancement within a business.

IS DAIRY MOVING OUTSIDE THE GENDER BOX OR TO FEMALE HEADLINES?

Headlines about the success of dairy women are nice to see and I must admit that seeing the listing of female judges at cattle shows was partially responsible for the writing of this article.  The announcement noted that “An all-female line-up of Judges from the US, UK and Canada will judge his year’s UK Dairy Expo!” For those of you who follow The Milkhouse, you may have seen the comments by a reader who noted, “A good judge is a good judge. Why are we discussing a M vs F as some difference? Kinda sad. These women are no better or worse than anyone else. They can handle the task obviously so let them and let’s stop putting them in a box.” Dairy recognizes ability … in the barn, in the board room and in the show ring.

“OLD BOY BOYS CLUBS  AND GIRLS ONLY) JOB SILOS HOLD GROWTH DOWN”

Does your dairy put employees into silos?  What about other on or off-farm dairy interactions which you keep in their individual silos.  Now you have silo disadvantages such as: 

• There is limited interaction with people outside of the silo.
• Silos can lead to resistance to change.
• People within silos may avoid cross-department collaboration.
• Information silos, which exist when information isn’t shared between the barn, board rooms, and suppliers, can hamper dairy growth and efficiency.
• Think of support staff like veterinary, nutrition and feed suppliers. Silos in these areas can cause duplication of effort, lack of synergy and missed opportunities.
• Women are the best advocates for the dairy industry. Is this progress or another silo?

Silos can turn into a big problem for dairy workplace cohesion and employee engagement. They can result in weakened trust in the company’s leadership and deaden motivation for employees who end up feeling incapable of changing the culture and are left wanting more.

ONE STATISTIC ABOUT DAIRY WOMEN OWNERS  

The salaries of women who own dairies has been reported to be 80% of the salary of male dairy farm owners.  So let’s ask the second question.  “Do male dairy farmers make more or less than the salaries of owners in non-agricultural businesses?”  It was not easy to find a statistic to answer this question. Is this bias as well or something more?

IS DAIRYING DRIVEN BY MAKING MORE?

We think we know the solution to getting the best work done in the dairy industry. Clearly, it all boils down to “more”. But what are we adding up to get the success sum? More money on each dairy barn or business bottom line? More money from the government?  More perc money, trips or gifts from suppliers or customers? To remain more relevant more money is definitely a priority.

But what must happen BEFORE more money?

In dialogue with THE BULLVINE readers and our networks of dairy farmers and dairy research and business connections, we are hearing that, while the above list of things is nice, more is actually referring to three things: more workers – more workers and -more workers.  Every sector needs to have proactive productive staff ahead of everything else!

WHAT’S GENDER GOT TO DO WITH MORE?

It’s simply undeniable that in virtually every hiring decision, discrimination is still quite common. There are simply too many studies out there on virtually every type of decision — hiring, housing, loan approvals, etc. showing that, if the person making the decision knows the gender or the race of the person applying, the likelihood of discrimination goes up, even when the applications are identical in every relevant way.  That is largely because of our implicit biases, something that even the most enlightened among us can easily fall into without even realizing we’re doing it.

FOR FURTHER READING:

Before we wrap this article up, it might be useful to take note of other sources that are discussing this topic:

• USDA – USDA ERS
• Canada – agriculture.canada.ca
• Zippia – dairy farmer demographics and statistics in the US

TECHNOLOGY: DO SUCCESSFUL DAIRIES HAVE THE REMOTE-EST IDEA?’

While looking for the correct solution, you might think that technology is a non-gender answer.  But that may not be factually true either. Who takes up new technology faster?  Men or woman?  Where’s the proof of that?  If technology has a huge effect on money-making, there might be a corresponding shift in who manages it or who is allowed to manage it. The competition for productive effective labour is intensifying. It encompasses many gender issues such as:

• Gender-neutral parental leave.
• Access to training
• Paid time for training.
• Diversity hiring applied to actions.

These things are becoming true success differentiators.

THE BALANCE BETWEEN HUMAN WORKERS AND INTELLIGENT ROBOTS

We now have increasingly capable robots and artificial intelligence (AI) systems that can take on tasks that were previously only done by humans. This leaves employers with some key questions: how do we find the balance between intelligent machines and human intelligence? What roles should be given over to machines? Which roles are best suited to humans? There’s no doubt that automation will affect every industry, so dairy leaders must prepare the people and technological environments in their dairies and dairy support organizations for the changing nature of work. Change is here.  What do you fear? 

The Bullvine Bottom Line

There will always be reasons to be afraid. You could find yourself paralyzed with fear because you think your business is on the line, or you could be afraid of making a mistake and feeling ridiculed, disliked, misunderstood or just plain stupid. These fears, while normal and understandable, can also be quite destructive to growing your dairy business. Some of the most inventive and game-changing ideas have been born out of errors. Original ideas come to life when you dare to be different, keep an open mind, and have no fear of crashing and burning. This is true regardless of the gender of your team.

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