The agronomist engineer who makes you think in feminine

LleidaThere are women who still carry the label of “the first” or “the only one”. Conxita Villar Mir is the first dean of the Official College of Agricultural Engineers of Catalonia (COEAC) from outside Barcelona. At 29 years old, she had been the first female representative. Today she is the only female dean in the sector in the entire State, the first recipient of an award from the Institute of Engineering of Spain for her contribution to equality, and the only one from outside Madrid. Singularity as both a merit and a symptom.



This woman from Lleida defines herself from foundational contradiction: her female role model was a “no-role model”, an empowered mother but the daughter of a time that advised women not to complicate their lives. "Find yourself an easy career," she told her. Rebellious by nature and gifted in science, despite her inclination for fine arts, when it came to choosing a career, Conxita chose the most demanding option offered at that time in Lleida, agricultural engineering. 



Since 2021, she has presided over the college of a profession that is invisible despite being essential. "When you eat a piece of fruit, when you turn on the tap, or get on a train, engineering has already done the work." That's why young people don't have role models for it. Working for this visibility is one of her objectives. The agri-food sector represents 20% of the country's industrial GDP and guarantees that we have food every day. We are talking about secure employment with 100% job placement and a generous range of professional opportunities, from the field to the table. On the other hand, every year fewer than two hundred agricultural engineering students graduate from Catalan universities, and only thirty or forty from the enabling master's degree. And this, explains the dean, can already be considered a victory, considering that three years ago there were fifteen. 



If we analyze it with the gender lens, only 30% of students in this degree are girls, a percentage that thins out among those who finish higher education. With only 20% of registered members, Villar defends the parity law without nuances: "We wish we didn't need quotas, but if we don't oblige it, women are not considered." In the three years remaining in her term at the COEAC, she aims to reach 40% women on the governing board. As equality coordinator for the associations of agronomist engineers in Spain, she seeks to increase the number of female deans, convincing those leaving to think of their female colleagues when proposing successors. And for the sector as a whole, to multiply role models, not just in distant excellence, but in possible lives: real professionals who balance work and life, who live well, who exist.

Between agronomic engineering, management, leadership, and teaching, Conxita Villar has forged a career that defies stereotypes. She has not only reached where she wanted in a man's world: she has left the door open, and notes that, many times, the glass ceiling is self-imposed. In a sector that is still not visible, this is perhaps the most transformative aspect of all.

But the challenge is not just about gender. Villar warns that the country is far from sufficient food sovereignty, which does not reach 40% and should be positioned "at least at 60%, especially in a context of geopolitical tensions and climate change." This requires, according to her, more irrigation –Catalonia does not reach 20% of irrigated agricultural land–, modern infrastructure, and applying more technology to the field. Also to attract generational renewal and reduce bureaucracy that discourages. "And without a shadow of a doubt, we need energy independence and a circular economy, and this has a cost." In twenty years, Conxita Villar imagines a Catalan rural world with more people living there and earning a good living, with more efficient and digitized farms, and with "a sector capable of being sustainable, circular, digital, and collaborative at the same time".