The first part of the cycle of seminars on “The lack of employment opportunities for women in rural areas as a decisive factor for depopulation” was held in Gijón, Spain on 24-27 June 2024, organised by USO – CCFAS (Unión Sindical Obrera – Centro Confederal de Formación y Acción Social (Workers’ Union - Confederal Center for Training and Social Action)) in cooperation with MCL / EFAL (Movimento Cristiano Lavoratori (Christian Workers Movement) / Ente Nazionale per la Formazione e l'Addestramento dei Lavoratori (National Agency for the Training and Education of Workers), supported by the EZA and funded by the European Union.
This second cycle of seminars on depopulation and the spread of opportunities in these depopulated and ageing European territories has focused on the crucial role of women in the process of reversing this rural exodus.
The choice of the topic we explored was determined by the conclusions of the first cycle of seminars organised by USO and MCL-EFAL in 2023 entitled “The depopulation of regions: a threat to equal opportunities”. They highlighted two main problems that merited a detailed analysis. One issue is the first mass migration of young people to access mid-level and higher studies and education, who cannot then return at a later due to the scarcity of employment and housing opportunities. And the other is the exodus of women, apart from the oldest, which then compromises sustainability and generational replacement in the villages and smaller towns.
We first analysed the general context of depopulated Europe and the sociocultural role of women in rural society to discern the underlying causes of and solutions to remedy the absence of opportunities for women in the rural sphere.
The lack of public services is one of the greatest obstacles to the wish to remain in a less populated environment. In addition to being emptier and older, the rural sphere also generally suffers from geographical dispersion. This makes it more expensive to provide services and therefore the people in these areas do not have, in practice, the same rights and public services as would be available in urban zones.
This deficit is driving many people out of the rural districts. However, care and domestic care in general is one specific areas in which women suffer the effects of poor services. The vast majority of women, almost 86%, are directly involved in unpaid care in the rural sphere, compared to 27% of men.
Caregiving could therefore be the tip of the iceberg of the stigmatisation of the roles of women in terms of the social context of the rural environment. This is because this care work makes women invisible and even more vulnerable: economically dependent, dependent for their mobility and, in the most extreme cases, they may be frequent victims of gender violence.
All these factors have meant that the rural world offers a bleak future for women and has suffered from an increased exodus of women in recent decades. This mass migration, which academics have dubbed the “huida ilustrada” (enlightened flight), has its roots in education, as older generations of women have urged their daughters and granddaughters to escape this very hostile situation in the villages and small towns and to pursue training and education in the cities. An escape with no return.
An analysis of some of the reasons why the rural world is less attractive to women revealed a lack of real statistics at a European and national level on this subject. These sessions have demonstrated that the situation differs in the various countries, but reliable data from the environment with the least population weight, i.e. the rural population, is required to gain a full understanding of the problem and to provide a solution.
The following potential solutions have been formulated to help women access work and therefore remain in a rural environment:
Improvements to infrastructure, connectivity, public services and access to housing.
Improved access to ownership of agri-food farms after the milestone of shared ownership.
Professional care is a double employment opportunity: on the one hand, it creates net employment for caregivers, a sector that remains predominantly female. And, on the other, the professional status of care frees women from their domestic role to enable them, in turn, to access the labour market. All these measures are required along with the necessary roll-out of the European Care Strategy.
Ageing, not only in terms of care, is also a great employment opportunity in the rural sphere. The remaining population may be older, but they live in better health conditions compared to decades ago, and not only need care but also leisure opportunities, which in turn would generate employment.
Practical plans must be developed that would create these opportunities in the rural environment. Some assistance is available for the rural sphere, but this is not correctly oriented towards stabilising the population through job opportunities and commitment to public services and infrastructure. Experiences of successful ventures have in fact been documented in the three participating countries during the period that aid was provided, but these could not be maintained due to a lack of external funding. This is in addition to the need to eliminate bureaucratic obstacles to access such funds.
In terms of finance, credit lines or micro credit for small projects could be more productive.
It is not enough to depend on rural tourism for economic development to avoid a monoculture in certain fashionable towns, as second homes and vacation hotels create temporary employment, but will still fail to solve the population issue.
The quality of production will be a vital factor in the agri-food sector. Spanish towns cannot compete with massive imports in terms of quantity and price. However, they can be competitive in food quality, which leads to job creation.
The cultural heritage and the care of villages and towns, with tougher legislation regarding the conservation and protection of these assets, is also important, along with remuneration to those participating in such protection.
Finally, the speakers agreed that women are the unifiers of rural society and maintain the social fabric. Moreover, when they are independent and autonomous, they are a factor for growth and contribute more consistency and productivity to the rural sphere.
This first part of the seminar closed with the invitation to the second part which will be held in the south of Italy on a date yet to be specified, hosted by MCL-EFAL.