2026 Nuffield NZ Farming Scholarship. Apply by 17 August 2025. Read More...

Apply for 2026 Nuffield NZ Farming Scholarship by 17 August 2025. More details...

women

Kirsten Holmes

This research report examines the current state of women in food and fibre governance.

Sol Tejada

The Apiculture industry plays a key role in the economy: for its production, for the benefits that bees provide to the ecosystem and economy. This report focuses on female beekeepers and delves into their experiences in New Zealand’s Apiculture Industry.
Yvette Jones Kellogg K48

Yvette Jones

This report was conducted to understand the current status of the representation of women in the Kiwifruit industry. Women contribute to increased levels of innovation, and better risk management.
Emma Hinton Kellogg 48

Emma Hinton

This report explores the connection between confidence and career progression for our future female leaders. It aims to understand how we can instil confidence in our future female leaders to encourage them into their next role.
Sharleen Temara

Sharleen Temara

This whakataukī is about perseverance and endurance. Refusing to let obstacles get in your way while striving to reach your goals. This research paper looks at the need for women in leadership, the need for te ao Maori and tikanga Maori in the workplace, the current resistance to change and posits how this might change.

Keri Moore

Recognition among our rural women and their success is a topic I don’t think is acknowledged or emphasised enough. Being able to confidently believe and recognise you make an impactful contribution to meet your values, and have a definition of your success while being content with your moral compass is essential. The aim of this project was to talk to a cross-section of rural women and then make an informed decision about the definition of their success, and how they believe it impacts over their lives and communities.

Nadine Porter

Rural women are moving their social space and networks online and increasingly seeking to work longer hours off farm, while the communities they live in continue to operate in the historical colonial space of a ‘man’s world’.  Survey results for this report portray farming Mums in particular, as largely feeling lonely and isolated and without … Read more

Regan Barkla

Worldwide, there is a scarcity of women in leadership (Sandberg, 2010). In many organizations, even at the lowest level women struggle to make up 50% of the workforce. This number decreases steadily as you get successively higher. Worldwide, only 3–4% of women reach CEO level (Herminia Ibarra, 2013). Despite key advancements in the workforce for … Read more

Sue Pickering

To achieve industry growth targets, Government and Primary Industry strategies have signalled the need for change. For example there are calls for greater collaboration, scaling up, more innovation and improved productivity. The key to success will be commercial leadership. Individual enterprises across the value chain will need leaders and senior managers with the capability and … Read more

Brad Saxton

Why are females underrepresented in the role of Rural Manager at ASB Bank Limited? In what has traditionally been a male dominated industry, more and more females are occupying Rural Manager roles with ASB competitors. The other divisions within ASB also have a high number of females and there is a large number of female … Read more

Chanelle O’Sullivan

Two years ago, I had an idea of adding a ‘one-stop-shop’ website into the brand that is, Farming Mums NZ. The aim of this study is to determine whether further, specific support and resources are wanted or needed by the Farming Mums NZ community and to initiate a game plan on how to get it … Read more

Brown, Cathy

The business case for gender diversity is well documented; women make up 46% of the New Zealand workforce, women control 65% of global spending (Continuum) and yet how does New Zealand agribusiness sit in the leadership space? The Human Rights Commission report of August 2010 ( NZ Human Rights Commission, 2010) indicates that 11.84% is … Read more

Gower Fiona

Rural Women New Zealand has been in operation for over 80 years. Through the years and the name changes its main aim to support rural women, families and communities has stayed basically the same. As a relatively new member of RWNZ, there is a lot about the organisation that I do not know about or … Read more

Smith Diane

Exercise is important for all women of all ages and it should be an integral part of your life. A number of women were surveyed or received a Fitness Challenge Programme for 2009 on their exercise regime. I wanted to find out what exercise women were involved in and what motivated them to exercise. This … Read more

Wilson, Trudy

This is my chronicle in which I am recording the last few months of interesting and unforeseen circumstances in my life. My husband had a stint in hospital with an infected hand. Finally after two weeks I realized the inevitable, I was it. I had to take on the farming role; there was no one … Read more

Robyn Clements

This report examines women's roles in New Zealand dairying, advocating for greater recognition and participation in decision-making. It explores barriers to involvement, leadership opportunities, and networking benefits for both women and the dairy industry.

Soper, VJ

Over many years, Field Days have been organised for Women in Agriculture. A popular topic for discussion at these days has been Emergency Planning and Emergency Farming. The topics for discussion are chosen by the women themselves, showing the need for such information, and the sessions have always been well attended and have generated much … Read more

Grigg, Robyn

We were members of the 1982 Kellogg Rural Leadership Course. A requirement of the course was the completion of a project. We combined our energies, skills and resources to search out, interview and then portray women in non-traditional rural occupations. Our aim has been to encourage girls to consider all types of work – to … Read more