“My mother has worked on the family farm all her life and she had no right to anything,” explains Isabel Navarro, viticulturist and member of the executive committee of La Unió Llauradora i Ramadera. Navarro corroborates the message of the lack of visibility of women in the rural world, of which they have always been a part, outside helping with planting, harvesting, packaging the product, and probably being the first to taste and value the fruits and vegetables produced before they are marketed.
They talked about it this past weekend at a meeting held in Llíber by Asaja Alicante, where they also discussed equality and empowerment of rural women with the collaboration of family psychotherapist Maite Muñío, held on Saturday in Llíber, Alicante. “The woman has always been there, but she has never stated it,” maintains Teresa Antón, provincial president of the women’s sector in Alicante. He explains that there are still few, less than they would like -especially due to the current low profitability of the field- and they point out that “it is essential” that they improve the income and profitability of producers to promote and encourage young people and women to lead farms.
“They create community, it is not just that they lead agricultural projects. Where they go, the whole family goes and that is key in rural areas, so depopulated. Women are important in all areas, but in the rural world even more”, argues Antón. Bet because this is the moment in which the woman of “the definitive leap” and abandons that role of mere companion to become the leader of her agricultural exploitation.
Likewise, the association argues that, in the last decade, the percentage of heads of Spanish agricultural exploitations has grown by 22% and now make up 28% of the total. “Titularities on farms have also grown and, in advisory or quality services, there are even more women,” they add from Asaja Alicante.
Regarding this, Isabel Navarro alludes to the 2011 Law on Shared Ownership of Farms, promulgated to “promote and favor real and effective equality for women in rural areas”.
The rule requires that both owners, marriage or common-law relationship, be registered with Social Security and allows the regulation of the economic rights generated in favor of the spouse or person linked by a similar affective relationship, against the owner of the agricultural exploitation. . “The law exists, but there are only about 1,100 in Spain, it is very little,” says Navarro, who defends that “with more stable income, there would be generational relief and more shared ownership would be made.” However, the current prices received by the sector stand as an obstacle. Isabel Navarro, who is preparing for the harvest these days, confirms this: “It costs a lot to start from scratch and with current prices, even more so.”
On Saturday, which was attended by a hundred attendees, sexist violence was also addressed, an informative brushstroke that the association did not want to avoid, knowing the current context. In this sense, Tere Antón claims that “many times we are not aware of the abuse and we want to raise awareness of it. If in the cities it is difficult to see it, in the rural environment, where we all live spread out, much more so, ”she recalls.
