Addressing Gender Inequality in Agriculture: A Key Focus of EU4Advice

An article by Louise Mehauden

 

Why a gender study in EU4Advice?

The EU perspective to tackle gender issues has evolved over the years, to become, since the late 1990s, a transversal issue applying to all policy fields, enshrined in the gender mainstreaming principle and non-discrimination as a fundamental right (1).

Despite of this, gender equality is still far to be a reality for many women in the world and in Europe. In the field of agriculture and rural development, significant inequalities are still to deplore, and major obstacles are still hindering gender equality (2).

EU gender mainstreaming engagement also applies to the research and innovation programmes. With Horizon Europe, the Commission strengthened its commitment towards gender equality, promoting the participation of women, and requiring the integration of a gender dimension into research and innovation contents of projects. 

In line with these concerns, EU4Advice elaborated a Gender Equality Plan at project level, which outlines a series of guidelines to promote gender equality, and plans the monitoring of gender-related indicators on a yearly basis. On the other hand, the Gender Study is aimed at providing gender-specific insights about project topics and contents.

Exploratory phase: key messages so far

Between September and December 2024, we carried out an exploratory phase, reviewing literature, compiling existing data and consulting experts on six main topics, related with EU4Advice:

  • Women in agriculture and rural world: which are the current gender gaps, issues and challenges of rural and farmer women? 
  • Women in SFSC: presence and profile of women in SFSC initiatives across Europe
  • SFSC and women empowerment: which are the motives of SFSC practitioners, especially women? To which extent do SFSC comply with their emancipatory vocation, especially regarding women? Which are the main obstacles in these emancipation processes?
  • Women as (SFSC) consumers: insights on SFSC and food consumption from a gender perspective
  • Women and rural advisory services: how the gender dimension is taken into account in AKIS? What are the different approaches implemented to integrate gender issues in European advisory services? Are women advisors facing specific challenges?
  • Women in agrifood policy: European legal and policy responses to gender issues in the agrifood sector

Against the backdrop of an unsustainable industrialised and globalised male-dominated agriculture, SFSC and alternative food systems in general appear as places of resistance and empowerment, both for producers and consumers. Offering a wide diversity of alternative modalities to sell and procure food, avoiding the big distribution conventional channels, they advocate for and aim to contribute to a higher bargaining power of farmers, especially the smallest ones, a more active participation of consumers in production issues, and more inclusive and vibrant rural communities. The (re)emergence of these (neo)traditional marketing practices occurs in parallel with a movement of refeminisation of agriculture, and women appear to be particularly involved in this kind of agricultural and marketing networks. In a context where they face more difficulties than men to access land ownership, financial and other resources, these alternatives allow them, to a certain extent, to circumvent these obstacles. However, in a legal, socioeconomic and cultural environment that is propitious for the big agrifood industry and often ignores SFSC specificities, their development is not exempt from challenges, neither from gendered typical hurdles, stereotypes and discriminations, that jeopardise their emancipation potential. 

Can we say, therefore, that an alternative (SFSC) to the conventional male-dominated system is empowering, if this alternative itself is struggling to survive in a legal, political, social and economic background that is tailored-made for an industrial and globalised agrifood system? How and under which conditions could SFSC be more empowering, especially for women? Should they be promoted from a policy point of view as an empowering tool for women? Or should we rather focus on promoting equality in the “mainstream” system? 

Our literature review has reflected the ambivalence of SFSC as a lever of empowerment for women, both as producers and consumers. They appear as spaces of autonomy, where many women grasp the opportunity to develop their professional potential, gain social and economic recognition, and partially escape from the big agrifood system that oppresses them. At the same time, these reduced spaces of autonomy are struggling to exist, in a hostile socioeconomic, cultural and politico-legal environment tailored for and by the mainstream system. They hardly succeed in questioning the established order and subvert the patriarchal social structures, so that they globally remain politically and socially marginalised as a secondary playground, “not for serious guys”.

SFSC are acknowledged to be a key driver in the transition towards a more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable agrifood system, and women appear to be, by choice or by necessity, key actors in the process. Supporting SFSC implies therefore supporting the women (and men) that innovate and take these sustainable initiatives, regardless of their motives. Indeed, it appears also important to avoid the pitfall of gender determinisms, that pigeonhole women in new (and not so new) stereotypes, and to recognise that they are not a homogeneous group (in terms of needs, values, aspirations and ambitions), in order to assure them diverse and real opportunities to thrive in the agricultural sector. 

The access to well-equipped, up-to-date and relevant advice is an important ingredient in the success of SFSC and innovation in general. This lies at the foundation of EU4Advice’s rationale. Moreover, it appears that fostering SFSC-related advice, as well as advice related to farm diversification, polyculture and small-scale high-value productions, indirectly supports women, that are more likely to engage in this kind of projects. AKIS and advisory systems also come out to be a key lever of empowerment for women farmers, if they incorporate a gender-transformative perspective, that takes into account their specific needs, and challenges discriminatory relations, norms and practices. Even if it is still difficult to objectively appraise the current AKIS strategies’ contribution to gender equality, the most recent evaluations show that there is plenty of scope for improvement.  

At policy level, the way to construe and tackle gender inequalities has evolved along the decades, since the 1957 Treaty of Rome, evolving from a mere economic approach to a gender mainstreaming principle. Gender has become a cross-cutting issue, addressed in specific strategies and policies, as well as in sectorial policies such as the CAP. Even if for the 2023-2027 the CAP objectives include the gender equality for the first time, the first analysis of the national strategic plans have shown that most Member States have fallen short in addressing gender inequalities. More generally speaking, some authors argue that “while the discourse on gender equality policy has evolved through ‘equal opportunity’, ‘positive action’ and ‘gender mainstreaming’ approaches, the policies mostly focus on auxiliary benefits such as maternity leave, childcare services and part-time work, aiming to assist women in reconciling their work and life situations. These benefits do not substantially transform conventional gender roles within the family or at the social-economic and political levels, which to a large extent perpetuate gender inequality at large” (3). Furthermore, women are still not equally represented in the decision-making bodies, at all levels. 

In these regards, one of the main conclusions is that gender-disaggregated data is missing at EU level and in many EU countries, making it difficult to measure the magnitude and main factors of gender inequalities in the sector of agriculture. This lack of objective knowledge about gender issues is hindering the development of relevant, evidence-based and well-targeted actions to ensure real opportunities for women to participate in agriculture, and to bridge the existing gaps between women and men farmers.

However, there could be interesting opportunities and policy momentums in the upcoming months and years, with the EU Gender equality strategy, the EU Strategic Dialogue on the Future of Agriculture, and the evaluations and drafting of the CAP.

In this context, and in the light of the existing literature and data, and of the exchanges carried out with experts and related projects, our gender study will concentrate on the way current advisory services and agents, as well as AKIS decision bodies, take into account gender issues, in their day-to-day practice. Different activities will be carried out in the upcoming months to contribute to answer this question: surveys to advisors, focus group with policy-makers and relevant stakeholders, interviews with experts, etc.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Footnotes:

  1. EIGE, “The EU’s evolving legal and policy approaches to Gender Equality”, 2022, URL: https://eige.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/20224795_pdf_mh0422028enn_002.pdf 
  2.  EIGE, “Gender in agriculture and rural development”, 2016, URL: https://eige.europa.eu/publications-resources/publications/gender-agriculture-and-rural-development?language_content_entity=en 
  3.  M. SINHA, P. BIBHAKAR, “Locating pitfalls in the EU gender equality policy”, Forum Italicum A Journal of Italian Studies · June 2023, p.1041