Hi! My name is Holly Pennington, I’m grade 10 and am enrolled in Sorell High School, Tasmania. Today I will be responding to your illuminating 2021 question – What is the role of rural women in driving change in their communities?

Firstly, I’d like to pay my respects to the Mumirimina people, the traditional custodians and landowners of country on which Sorell School was built. I extend this respect to all elders, past and present and I acknowledge all of women’s invaluable contributions to the exurban community.

Rural women have always been pillars of support for their communities, whether it be through providing their family with food and water, contributing to crop production, being a beacon of support for other women in their group or teaching their next generation the building blocks of critical thinking and survival skills. Moreover, rural communities often rely on their resident women to multitask in house; pushing that familial social constructs and rules are heavily driven by the women at home. Our Aussie bush battlers show courage when faced with challenges and smile as they defeat them.
To put that into perspective, Australian women produce at least 49% of real income. Women contribute to primary industries in a variety of ways, including farm management, company management, farm tourism, and off-farm jobs to keep farming operations afloat.

Despite all our matriarchy’s competency historically women have been marginalised through education, income and even social settings. This has stunted our capacity to grow in our modernised economy. In 2013, a mere eight years ago, women accounted for a sheer 8% of world leaders. More concerningly, a 2021 UN report supplies that roughly 90% of men have accumulated a unconscious bias against todays females. Our society is actively teaching men from the womb to believe in preset, predisposed ideas and stereotypes that effect their mothers, sisters and daughters. This worldwide inequality is staggering and is still a problem.

One possible solution to help assist Australian rural women in their endeavours would include the boosting and funding of the Women and Rural Communities agenda.
Women and Rural Communities is a DPIPWE programme that aims to connect and support rural women in their essential labour and contributions to primary industries. This support is essential to allow significant growth in gender quality in and around rural industries and professions.

Another way to directly combat such discrimination is through rural empowerment. We need to speak and speak now! Rural justice is not a trend and should not be treated as such. We need to use the privilege we have chanced upon to elevate fellow beings who aren’t as lucky we have been. We need publicity – a way to bring a megaphone to the concept of equity and equality. To force those with all innate power to help those without. Whether that be through posts on social media, to politicians raising the thought to inclusive conversations in the classroom!

After all, when women thrive all of society benefits. Equality is the cornerstone of democracy and simply cannot be pushed by one or two people. So, I’ll leave you with this reflection from Michelle Obama; “No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the of the contribution of half of its citizens.”