A 'men-only' farming industry awards dinner has permitted women to attend for the first time in one hundred years.
The annual event, which runs during the Dartmouth Fatstock Show in Devon, has followed the men-only tradition for more than 100 years.
The show sees prizes given to both men and women at a ceremony earlier in the day followed by a men-only awards dinner in the evening.
Show chairman Phil Bond explained last year that the dinner was a “tradition and how it has always been done”.
“If in the future that changes as a democracy or as a vote within the committee that will carry on,” he said.
But now women have been allowed to attend the dinner on Tuesday (10 December) for the first time in a century.
It comes as pressure builds to ensure women in the traditionally male dominated industry to be better represented.
The Dartmouth Young Farmers Club is one group which has called for the event to “move with the 21st Century”.
Jessica Perry, a committee member at the YFC, said the female ban was “very outdated”.
Meanwhile, farmer Chloe Quantick said that the ban was 'silly' and applauded the event for moving with the times.
She said: “There's a hell of a lot of women coming out in the show seasons now, so girl power - it's the way it should be, we're all equal.
“I don't see why there had to be this divide of women weren't allowed to go. We're all the same.”
It follows the recent release of a Scottish government report looking at women's representation in the agricultural industry.
Women’s contribution to farming is often 'undervalued, downplayed, or simply unseen', the report said.
