I think it's both. Women who come to the conference talk about different areas of barriers. Women farmers find that it's different for them when they go to the bank without their husbands. I don't know what kind of barrier that is. It's the fact that they are not recognized for the contribution they make, as I said before, and therefore, there is automatically that obstacle in place. Men are used to dealing with men, on the business side, for farming.
Women in the rural areas find themselves very isolated, so it's difficult for them to say that they're going to join a board or become part of an association, because there's distance involved. There's the actual understanding of how they're going to work with that community.
Women in business find that they can get to a certain level, but of course, having their children between the ages of 22 and 35 takes them out of the workplace. Even for one month, one year, they find themselves losing step. They lose that ground.
The barriers, then, are there. We don't have the women leaders in place who will support and, as they call it, “sponsor” the women today who are coming up the ranks. We don't have women who feel confident enough to take on a position, and that could just be a role that women play without being in agriculture, in whatever industry you want to call it.
I think the barriers are there. Coming to a conference such as this provides the motivation and the aha moment of realizing that she made it to the podium, she made it to that place in her career, and there is an opportunity and a way for me to get there, too.