“Young people with naturalness to women in positions of responsibility”

In 1971, Josep María Pradas founded, together with his wife Maria Lluïsa Gené, JYMPA 1971 S.L., a family business currently run by the second generation, Marcel and Marta Pradas. Today this entity, member of Ansemat, has recognized awards for the quality and excellence of its agricultural machinery, commitment to export and this has had much to do with the incorporation of Marta to the family business.

By Marga López, agrifood journalist.

Marta Pradas is one of the women who inspire us in Agro Woman and Agrarian EComercio, providing the experience, training and internationalization that every private company needs.

You came to JYMPA 1971 in 2003, how has your position evolved within the company, have you assumed more responsibility?
I have a degree in Business Administration and before joining JYMPA, I worked for 5 years in other entities outside the local area. Here I started doing tasks related to the export department, because I have language skills and because I have always liked this area of ​​business, internationalization. Little by little, due to my academic training, I have been assuming tasks of finance and administration, up to the current position where, together with my brother, I assume the management tasks without disassociating myself from those three areas: export, finance and administration.

As a woman, have you had to demonstrate more your capacity to perform your work?

In general, we are facing a very affable and simple sector, with a very close relationship with customers, always establishing relationships based on trust, and that is something to be grateful for. But it is also true that on some occasion, when I had to explain the qualities of our machinery, my interlocutor wanted to validate the information that a man of the company has given me. Fortunately, cases like these are less and less frequent. And the fact is that the agricultural sector is changing, thanks mainly to the increasing presence of young people, who live naturally that their wife or partner works, therefore, come with the same naturalness that there are women in positions of responsibility .

Do you think that private companies in general have a responsibility when it comes to achieving real equality for women? Can something be done from the private sector?

We can not ignore the reality that even the presence of women is a minority, in our company and in anything else, but little by little this situation is changing. For example, in the assembly, welding and painting departments there are mostly men, but in the rest of the departments there is not. In this sense, I believe that there are many things that family businesses should and should be doing. In our cosmos for example, 25 years ago, one of the companies in the group was a pioneer in the hiring of women for the assembly of pieces of machinery for industrial cold: they were women with some free time, who came to work for our company, And we adapted to their schedules. 25 years ago! At the end and at the same time, it is a work-family conciliation, an aspect that is still very important today.