It's still mild, this autumn day, and a few rays of sunshine come to warm the white stone buildings of the Hectar campus.
The vast courtyard of this former farm in Lévis-Saint-Nom, in the Yvelines, converted a year ago into an “agricultural business school”, welcomed that day a gathering of startuppers in sneakers – the new figures in the sector – who came to pitch in front of investors in suits and ties.
Away from this small crowd, in a freshly renovated house, located at the entrance to the campus, are gathered eleven women.
They met that morning, and a hint of shyness still hangs in the air as they sit down to lunch.
Aged between 30 and 50, from all over France, Martinique or Reunion, they are mostly farmers,
but some also run a cooperative or have created a start-up.
They are the first promotion of Farm'Her, a new training cycle offered by Hectar.
Dedicated to women in the agricultural sector, the program, which is free – because it is financed by PepsiCo – aims to help them assert themselves, defend their projects and their vision.
In a word, to strengthen their leadership.
“It echoes what we are experiencing: as soon as we leave our farm to take up positions in professional organizations, we are alone, half-smiles Mathilde Jonet, in her forties, farmer in the Ardennes and president of a Cuma, cooperative for the use of agricultural equipment.
When I took over the family farm in 2016, after a career in sport, I felt like I had found my rightful place.
But,
To affirm what I want to do with this farm, I feel the need to feel more legitimate
Mathilde Jonet, a program participant
Strengthen your game
How do you develop this sense of legitimacy?
This is the central question, projected on the wall of the meeting room where, after lunch, the eleven participants settle down.
"The objective is neither more nor less to become aware of who you are", launches their coach, Ingrid Bianchi.
An impeccable blazer and piercing blue eyes, the founder of the firm Diversity Source Manager is the architect of this one-month program, consisting of two days in person and videoconference sessions.
Between personal development and
soft skills,
the recipe uses the classic ingredients of business coaching, mixed with anglicisms.
This is about identifying your “why” – “what is your raison d'être?” asks Ingrid Bianchi – and your “how” – the roadmap for achieving your goal.
But also her strengths, her weaknesses, her priorities, the pillars of her life balance... We can't help but wonder if this discourse, imbued with neo-management and positive psychology, will resonate with these women in the field, accustomed to long hours and solitary work.
It turns out yes, and even very strong, very quickly.
Perhaps because it is the first time, for lack of time, that they have offered themselves this space for sharing and reflection.
"A career is made of stages, it was time for me to take this break",
smiles Cécile Bossan, General Delegate of InterBeaujolais and mother of a one-month-old infant.
Around the table, each one reacts, wonders, dissects her journey and puts words on her aspirations.
Alexia Rey, a graduate of Sciences Po, is the founder of NeoFarm, a start-up at the origin of a new model of high-tech suburban agroecological farms, finalist in 2019 of the Madame Figaro Business with Attitude prize.
"Do we have the same 'why' all our life?" she wonders.
“Mine has evolved, rebounds Valérie Léguereau, operator in polyculture and poultry farming in the Center-Val de Loire and administrator of the cereal group Axéréal.
I first wanted to work in agriculture, which I did as an accountant for fourteen years,
before feeling the need to feed others.
This is why I took over the management of a farm.”
A career is made of steps, it was time for me to take this break
Cécile Bossan, a participant of the program
Read alsoThree women, three farmers, three extraordinary journeys
Hyphens
Serving others, taking part in a collective action to contribute to something greater than oneself… The same idea keeps coming back.
All seem to have embraced the profession to serve society, future generations, their own children or, for the women farmers, their parents from whom they took over the farm.
Often, moreover, after having sworn that they would not!
Many say they dug their furrow far from the family land before returning there, to avoid the sale of the farm.
As if overtaken by a responsibility that family history has placed on their shoulders, and which has become their driving force.
"I feel like the heiress of many things," calmly states Céline Imart, an Occitan farmer in her forties, a cereal and seed producer.
Impeccable white shirt and hair tied in a ponytail, this graduate of Sciences Po (again) and Essec first made a career in finance and consulting before succeeding her father in 2010, becoming the sixth generation of farmers in his family.
Vice-president of the Young Farmers union for four years, she now sits on the board of directors of the General Association of Corn Producers (AGPM) and was elected spokesperson for the Intercereals federation.
A commitment on all fronts to, she says, live up to her legacy.
“The land and the know-how that we receive have gone through the history of our families, our regions and our country,” she underlines.
Before us, others have sweat blood and water to pass on this heritage.
Improving it and transmitting it in turn is, for me, contributing to the common good.”
It is still necessary to dare to appropriate this heritage, sometimes heavy to carry, to affix its imprint.
Here, by diversifying activities, there, by converting the land to organic.
To transform without betraying, to live up to the challenge without forgetting oneself: the complexity of the challenge constantly transpires in the stories of these women.
We hear it in the words of Micheline Zie, a 51-year-old farmer from Martinique.
On her farm, less than thirty minutes from Fort-de-France, she combines banana cultivation, agrotourism and event and catering services.
“Working 75 to 80 hours a week, taking seven unfortunate days off a year, evolving in an environment that is still very masculine… I can't stand it anymore.
I'm not sure I want to maintain agricultural production.
I hope to find keys here to decide, ”she says, smiling, her eyes hidden by round glasses with smoked lenses, when asked what she is looking for at Hectar.
Transform without betraying, be up to the task without forgetting oneself: the complexity of the challenge constantly transpires in the stories of these women
Substantive debate
How have these women held up so far?
The question arises with each testimony.
The agricultural world is not insensitive to the aspirations (well-being, life balance, comfort, etc.) that agitate the rest of the working world.
There too, some (women and younger generations in the lead) are trying to make the work less arduous and more profitable.
Because there is urgency: the risk of suicide is 40% higher among farmers than in the general population, according to figures from the Mutualité sociale agricole.
More than 500 operators in distress take action each year.
The suffering is there, palpable and terribly concrete.
“I met my husband before he set up as a breeder.
I lived with him indebtedness, working hours without earning much…”, says Clémence Ducroquet.
agricultural engineer,
This 30-year-old is now associate director of the dairy and fruit cooperative Lait Prairies du Boulonnais, which brings together eight producers from Hauts-de-France.
“In each of my previous professional experiences, I see how much I was guided by one question: what is the right business model?
The one that improves the lives of breeders, of all actors in the sector?
I came with that expertise.”
of all the players in the sector?
I came with that expertise.”
of all the players in the sector?
I came with that expertise.”
What is the right business model?
The one that improves the lives of breeders, of all actors in the sector?
I came with this expertise
Clémence Ducroquet, a program participant
Cultural shift
Working with the living reduces the room for manoeuvre: everyday life is unpredictable and the producer is vulnerable.
“We sleep badly because of the climate crisis and the frost, we can work up to 70 hours a week and we have to constantly adapt to everything.
You don't survive in this job if you suffer it.
You have to have strong nerves, ”insists Occitane Céline Imart.
If we add to this the unequal distribution of domestic tasks – a reality here as elsewhere –, where do you find the time to think about yourself?
Or even, to his job?
When to take height to project yourself?
The task is all the more difficult as agriculture is called upon to transform itself in depth and at full speed.
Faster than the anchoring of the post-war productivist model, based on arable crops, allows,
mechanization and inputs, which shaped farms, required heavy investment, and ultimately laid the very foundations of the agri-food industry.
This is now followed by the demand for local, healthy and planet-friendly food, which fuels a mistrust of farmers.
Here too, the word keeps coming back.
“Consumers are afraid that they will be poisoned, but at the same time, they continue to buy products from Brazil at the supermarket, where pesticides that have been banned in France for thirty years are still used, deplores Céline Imart.
You see farmers quite irrationally, and going to work every morning in this climate can be difficult.”
Especially when you also have to face the sometimes suspicious gaze of colleagues,
neighbors or male partners.
"I have a little trouble when people call me 'the farmer's wife'," smiles Nadège Petit, who nevertheless lives on her own family's land in Eure, where she produces cereals, potatoes and flax. with her husband.
Same feeling with Caroline François, polyculture producer and founder of En Végétation, a professional coaching firm at the service of agricultural transition: “Because I do not live on the farm, I am seen as a Sunday farmer.
It is more likely to call my employee, directly, on the pretext that he is on the ground.
Admittedly, the growing share of women in agriculture is forcing the sector to make a cultural shift.
Long considered only as their husband's wife, without a clear status (and therefore without a pension),
women farmers have only benefited from maternity leave since 2019. How can we imagine, then, that their environment has become acclimatized to their daily lives and their constraints?
“When a carrier tells me a delivery the next day at 8 am, I say no because I take my children, whom I am raising alone, to school.
Then there is always a funny white, ”notes Céline Imart.
I have a little trouble being called "the farmer's wife"
Nadège Petit, a participant of the program
collective breath
Before the start of the Farm'Her program, participants completed a questionnaire to identify their most salient character traits.
“Honesty”, “love of the other”, “gratitude”… In only one, leadership appears.
Of course, time and victories have done their work, and nurtured the self-confidence of these women.
But a latent question seems to occupy their minds: how far can they still go?
“This program helps us become aware of our talents and how we use them, or not,” summarizes Caroline François, founder of En Végétation.
Like other participants, we contact her again a few weeks later.
In the meantime, other coaching sessions have taken place, but in video.
And these seem to have paid off.
“My relatives and my service providers
now intend to defend what I want, to say what I did not dare to say”, she continues, reinforced, no doubt, by the strength of the group.
“We discuss with an open heart, the pro as well as the personal…, abounds Céline Imart.
This “promo” side interests me a lot.”
Beyond coaching, Farm'Her thus offers a space where to inspire a big blow, together, to start better.
So many studies show it: diversity increases business performance.
Why should it be any different with agriculture?
Importantly, women run larger and more sustainable farms on average than men.
Faced with the urgent need to change our lifestyles, it is therefore perhaps the consumers who have the most to gain from an agriculture where women feel free.
To assert themselves and prove their value(s).
for themselves,
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