The following is an excerpt from an article that appeared in Farm Weekly, featuring 2025 Future Female Leaders Program participant, Mollie Ratcliffe. :
By Kiera Bridcutt
June 7 2025 - 10:00am

“I wish I had somebody that I could have walked up to that was doing what I wanted to do.”

That is what drives young gun Mollie Ratcliffe.

“That’s my goal in life, to just be that person that somebody else can look up to,” Ms Ratcliffe said.

The 16-year-old student at WA College of Agriculture, Cunderdin, wants to see more females involved in agriculture.

“It’s not super common, it’s still a male-dominated job,” she said.

Ms Ratcliffe, who lives in Dowerin, has been around agriculture all her life.

“My dad was a farmhand and when I was really young, he used to work for some people out here called the Quartermaines,” she said.

“When I was young, they were amazing, they used to let me come out and sit in the tractor with him.

“They gave me that opportunity because we didn’t live on a farm, but they gave me that opportunity like I could.”

…..

It was during her time at school that she was involved in the Wheatbelt and Beyond Youth Mentoring, which provided school-based mentoring.

“Through that, I connected really well with the ladies in charge and they helped me get in contact with the Future Female Leaders,” she said. “They said, ‘hey, you’ll be perfect for it’.”

Tailored for year 11 girls, 300 applied, and Ms Ratcliffe was one of 20 to be accepted.

“Through (the program), I connect with so many people in this industry and other industries and they give me that support that I need to get my name out there and put my foot forward,” she said.

Ms Ratcliffe applied to the program, saying being out in the country there aren’t as many opportunities like this. As part of the program, she will complete a social impact project, which will look at sustainable agriculture.

“Through the information I’ve collected from both people I know and contacts I’ve made, and research, (I will) share the information I found with farmers around WA,” Ms Ratcliffe said.

“There’s not going to be a future for me to go into if there isn’t any change. So I’m trying to connect both something I enjoy and I’m passionate about back to my career and future.”

Interested in the area of sustainability, Ms Ratcliffe said farmers often kept doing the same things that worked for them and don’t feel the need to change.

“But if I want a future in (agriculture), there has to be a change,” she said.

Ms Ratcliffe is loving the program so far, being able to have a connection with so many other girls her age.