Celebrating the achievements of women in all industries, International Women's Day highlights the need for stronger gender equality — and nowhere is this more evident than on the farm.
Running a 40-hectare vineyard and citrus farm is hard work, particularly when you are doing it alone.
With English as a second language, Daljit Sanghera taught herself how to be a farmer after migrating from Punjab, India more than three decades ago.
She said the community in South Australia's Riverland region was amazed at her efforts running the farm and raising three children.
"The first year is really hard but I tried to learn how much I can, and then every year is getting better and better," Ms Sanghera said.
She said people were surprised when they discovered she ran the farm alone.
"It's physically [hard] work, plus my English is not really good either, so I think they are surprised."
Ms Sanghera said tenacity and her faith helped her to run the farm successfully.
"Everything's whatever needs to be done. I know everything now, I'm still learning, but it's good," she said.
"I feel proud I can do the things by myself. I'm independent now."
More women stepping into farming
Agricultural educator Simone Kain said more women were interested in pursuing farming-related careers.
"We're definitely seeing more women in agriculture. Women make up 50 per cent of the agricultural workforce at the moment," Ms Kain said.
"We can also see with the uptake of enrolment in ag courses at university, there's more of a bias towards women and young girls putting their hands up for these courses, which is great to see."
But while the number of women working in agriculture grows, the gender pay gap continues to widen — to 5 per cent on average in the past two years alone.
Australian Government data on workplace and gender equality shows the gender pay gap in agriculture, forestry and fishing increased by 3.9 per cent, from 21.8 per cent in 2016 to 25.7 in 2017, compared with a 1 per cent drop in the same year in industries overall.
"It does surprise me … to see that it's only widening," Ms Kain said.
"I think it's quite alarming and it just really proves that there's a lot still to be done.
"We can really attribute that back to the fact there's not representation of women on boards in the ag industry and there's not representation of women in ag organisations."
