RTE star Ella McSweeney has revealed she was told not to become a farmer because she wasn’t a man and she was never going to marry one.
The Big Week On The Farm presenter studied zoology under Professor Peter Wilson at Trinity College.
Farming was her initial career choice, but her desire to work in agriculture was quashed due to old age attitudes.
Dublin native Ella said: “Farming was, and still is, very male dominated in Ireland.
“I remember I wanted to study agriculture in UCD when I finished school. I was told I shouldn’t do it because I wasn’t a man and I wasn’t going to marry a farmer.
“I was 17 at the time and wildly innocent so I decided to do zoology in Trinity instead.
“I’m really glad I did because I totally fell in love with it.”
The 40-year old is flying the flag for female farmers and animal enthusiasts with her new four part TV series How Animals Work, airing on July 29th.
In the show the mom-of-three discovers how animals work inside and out with the help of her former Professor Wilson, a leader in animal psychology.
She said: “I never thought when I was in a lecture with Peter as a teenager that I would end up presenting a programme with him. It’s fantastic.”
Ella is confident that gender stereotyping which affected her career choice will soon be a thing of the past.
Speaking to the RTE Guide, she said: “The biggest change I’ve seen in my lifetime working is that there would have been an assumption that the eldest son would get the farm, and now there is no surprise if it’s the eldest daughter, if it’s a daughter in the family who wants it.
“I think it’s a really good thing that the person with the talent or passion for farming gets the farm, regardless of gender.
“What would you be doing giving a farm to someone who doesn’t want it anyway.
“The more women who get involved at a senior level of farming the better.
“It would be great to see the head of the Irish Farming Association be a woman.
“That would be a really positive move and it will hopefully happen in my lifetime.
“It would be great to see more women involved – as with everything else in life.”
