Lisa Edwards wanted to be one of the Lads. That is, a member of the Liverpool Agricultural Discussion Society (Lads), an all-male group for farmers that meets monthly for dinner and to listen to a talk.

       Last week, she complained on Twitter about Lads voting against a proposal to allow female members and guests to their meetings, and was surprised to receive a backlash.

       Although plenty of female farmers agreed that barring women from valuable networking opportunities was outdated, some men defended the vote.

       All-male spaces such as Lads were important, ran their argument – men needed a safe space to discuss their mental health, particularly in an industry such as agriculture where loneliness, stress and financial problems can trigger depression.

       This might be particularly important when nine in 10 farmers aged below 40 said that poor mental health was the biggest hidden problem in agriculture, according to a 2021 survey by the Farm Safety Foundation.

       Mrs Edwards, 53, and her husband Simon, 56, put forward the proposal to the group after realising that if they had had daughters instead of sons, their children would have been barred from going to meetings with their father.

       ‘Women should not be discriminated against’

       “If they want to run a farm, they should have equal opportunities [and] they shouldn’t be discriminated against because of their sex,” said Mrs Edwards, who farms 900 acres of cereals and potatoes in Merseyside.

       “Networking is so important, especially at the start of your career, and we wanted to make sure women coming into the industry would have that opportunity to network with other young farmers.”

       She argued that while the rules might have made sense when the group was founded in 1928, in 2022 women are much more common in agriculture – her son’s cohort at farming college was divided 50-50 between men and women.

       The couple recommended two ways that the group could rewrite its 100-year-old rules: either women could become full members or they could attend the dinners as guests.

       However, the proposals were defeated in a landslide, with 90 per cent of members voting to block female members.

       “We thought they would vote to have women at least as guests as a compromise,” said Mrs Edwards, sitting in the kitchen of her new-build modernist home, the room lit by windows along the high ceilings. “I didn’t expect it to be 90 per cent against.”

       She expressed her dismay at the Lads vote on Twitter:

       However, she was surprised to find herself getting a backlash. Olly Harrison, a 41-year-old member of Lads, who farms cereals on the other side of Liverpool, tweeted in response to her and another farmer:

       Sitting in his farmhouse with a cocker spaniel at his feet, Mr Harrison told The Telegraph that single-sex environments can have a subtle effect on group dynamics.

       Given that no one can bring a female partner, members tend to come to the group on an even footing, no matter whether they are widowed, divorced or happily married.

       “You can go to those meetings and not feel lonely [if you’re single],” he said, explaining that the group felt like a retreat to him when he split up with his partner of six years.

       He also argued that women are barred for good reason. Despite the fact that its title suggests it is an “agricultural discussion society”, Lads is an important group where men can meet for mutual emotional support.

       “There are conversations that are different between men and women,” he said, drinking from a mug decorated with a picture of a tractor. “Men take their lives more than women and in farming, it’s even worse…To take away a space to chat is wrong.”

       The fact that it’s not specifically labelled as a mental health group is kind of the point, he said. If it were called “Liverpool male farmers emotional support”, then men would feel too sheepish to come. But by getting together under the pretence of farming, the group can help men by stealth.

       Mrs Edwards questioned this line of argument: “There are waitresses and women guest speakers. Do they stop talking about their feelings when the waitress is in the room?”

       In addition, having a wider pool of potential members could be beneficial for the society – Mr Harrison estimated that the average age of men in the group is 60, with each meeting usually including a minute’s silence for the latest member who has died.

       “They will integrate or decline, sadly,” said Mrs Edwards.

       Then there is the 10 per cent of Lads members who did not vote against the proposal to allow women. Mark O’Hanlan, 59, has been a member for 20 years, and said he can see it from both sides.

       “The thing is with the suicide rate among rural farmers, and with farming in general going through a massive change, everybody is having to dig into savings to make a bet on whether they are going to survive.

       “It is a frightening time. We are often isolated. I work on my own and I can go weeks without seeing anyone apart from my close family. You don’t know if it is just you feeling like this, but the society allows you to share these issues with other blokes.”

       “Who knows? In the fullness of time, things might change. I’m sure they will.”