Women Protagonist of Rural Development; Flexible and Innovative Conciliation Services; Smart Rural for Gender Equality.

Published by xavier on 20 November 202320 November 2023

Spain

Introduction

The objective that the LEADER-NORDESTE Local Action Group hopes to achieve is to continue working with rural women, since they are the fundamental driving force of the rural environment. To make visible the leading role of women in the rural environment and not only women who work in agriculture, livestock, fishing or forestry, but all women who live and belong to the rural environment. To create a large associative movement and territorial governance through the creation of women’s networks. To train them to generate autonomy in order to make their work visible and value it. Facilitate the services of conciliation of work and family life to eliminate barriers and obstacles for women living in rural areas, derived from the sum of women and the inequalities of living in rural areas.

Presentation of the project

Territorio Igualdad is a project that arises from the need of the population, to promote equality from a gender perspective and work on equal opportunities between men and women. Among the activities developed with Territorio Igualdad we highlight: Meetings: Presentations and Exchange of experiences of rural women entrepreneurs, Recognitions, Networking Spaces; creation of an Equality NETWORK; technical provision of computer stations and equipment and internet access; Conciliation Services; classroom and on-line training; creation and promotion of contents in the network Voz de Mujer: Memoria y Cultura: interviews, photographic reports, web-series (La Gavilla), videos, etc.

The project began with the creation of a logo that included the three projects that make up Territorio Igualdad, as well as a graphic and audiovisual design of the project. Through the website www.adcnordeste.es/territorio-en-igualdad, the Equality Network and newsletter were launched, along with photo and video galleries, a timeline of the multiple actions and making visible all the actions that were being developed through the news blog and social networks. The official presentation initially planned for March 2020 had to be postponed to July due to the pandemic. The more than 80 actions planned were readapted to the circumstances forced by Covid-19, avoiding crowds of women. The reinvention of the actions, far from being a problem, led to an enrichment and more and more personalized actions. The provision of computer stations and equipment with Internet access in social centers in 10 of the territory’s districts was one of the first actions to be implemented. The Rural Women Meetings and the socio-cultural training plan, in classroom and online mode, were focused on boosting social participation, proximity and facilitating the digitalization of women, female entrepreneurship, promoting the use and recycling, the exchange of ideas and experiences, empowerment, transforming the culture and local traditions towards more egalitarian forms and procedures, reducing the isolation of rural women in the most dispersed areas, reducing the digital divide. A detailed study of the situation of one of the municipalities, Fortuna and its districts in terms of mobile coverage is also prepared, proposing solutions to offer the same opportunities to the entire rural population. Itinerant meetings were held in the four municipalities of the region, with open exhibitions where the protagonists were women, giving them social recognition as a woman inspiration. A space for information and business advice, through networking, as well as a day of lectures and exchange of experiences, with debate and analysis on various topics. Through Voz de Mujer: Memoria y Cultura (Women’s Voice: Memory and Culture), audiovisual contents are created to show the current reality of the women who live in the territory in their own voice, through interviews, as well as the creation of the documentary fiction La Gavilla, and Leader Experiences of enterprising women. Through the Plan for the implementation of Conciliation Services, different summer schools have finally been developed, the traditional ones for children from 3 to 12 years old, fundamental to be able to promote work and family conciliation in vacations for the youngest, and after the success of the Youth School 2021 in the hamlet of La Alquería in the municipality of Jumilla, has been launched for this July 2022 the second edition of this initiative for young people between 12 and 17 years, with different themes in addition to fun, promote learning in areas such as art history, local and emerging heritage, painting, crafts, journalism, therapeutic theater, sketches, dramatic play and self-knowledge, music, photography, etc…

The project is in the finalization and results evaluation phase. The results of Territorio Igualdad have addressed both the needs identified during the Participation Plan of the Participatory Local Development Strategy, EDLP-Nordeste and those that have emerged during its implementation. We highlight the participation of rural women and the collaborative work, considered a project specific to the territory as a whole, which has been adapted to the actions and idiosyncrasies of each rural nucleus and to the pandemic situation. Artistic and interpretative skills have emerged, since the women protagonists of the web-series La Gavilla are women without experience in scenography and filming, and in a totally altruistic way they show aspects of their daily environment, showing enterprising and didactic skills, from different angles, always dynamic and resolute. Some of the virtues of rural women are commitment, tenacity, sense of responsibility, ability to overcome, passion, courage, agility, emotional, conciliatory, fighters, strategic, diplomatic, tolerant of frustrations and above all learn from mistakes, are dynamic and advisors of rural development of the territories, defenders of heritage, culture, traditions rooted in the territories, etc.. In short, women have been empowered and digitized, feeling that they are the protagonists of their contribution to the rural environment, through the Equality Network.

This project is a priority for LEADER in our EDLP:

To make visible the leading role of women in the rural environment and not only women who work in agriculture, livestock, fishing or forestry, but all women who live and belong to the rural environment.
To create a large associative movement and territorial governance through the creation of women’s networks.
To train them to generate autonomy in order to make their work visible and value it. Facilitate the services of conciliation of work and family life to eliminate barriers and obstacles for women living in rural areas, derived from the sum of women and the inequalities of living in rural areas.
Climate and environmental benefits, economic benefits and societal benefits, foster gender equality, generational renewal, etc.

The initiative of the Youth School in a scattered nucleus is involving young people in learning about different topics, generating governance with the presentation and promotion in different events to the older ones, generally grandparents of these young people, energizing and promoting activities in the district with concerts, radio interviews, murals with graffiti in the environment, family trees, time capsules, etc.

Pictures