The 13th OECD Rural Development Conference was held in Cavan, Ireland on 28-30 September 2022 under the theme "Building Sustainable, Resilient and Thriving Rural Places". These are the presentations from the Conference parallel session "Reducing Gender Gaps: Improving opportunities for Women in the Rural Economy". For more information visit https://www.oecd.org/rural/rural-development-conference/.

1. Reducing gender gaps: creating
opportunities and removing constraints
for women in the rural economy
Sally Shortall,
OECD Rural Development Conference, Cavan, Ireland 28-30 September 2022
Sally Shortall, Duke of Northumberland Chair of Rural Economy
Newcastle University, England
sally.shortall@newcastle.ac.uk

2. Reducing gender gaps – focusing on
women in agriculture: reflections and
future directions
• Reflect on how to reduce gender gaps
• Consider some future sociological directions for research –
micro/ meso/ macro levels of analysis
• Reflect on continuity and change in agriculture and what
hampers change

3. Reflections:
• Inheritance
• Comparative analysis
• Poor quality statistics
• Prevalence of case studies

4. Reflections
• Very strong focus on women:
• Women’s exclusion – from farming organisations, farming
media
• Women’s lack of access to resources
• How women are socialised
• How women try to achieve change

5. Future
directions:
broaden
analysis
Three key analyses of
stratification: gender
(men/women); race; class
Micro/ meso/ macro – all
three, and how they interact,
make for better gender
analysis

6. Micro level
analysis
• Micro level analysis very much focuses on
socialisation. Most common in gender
stratification analysis
• Socialisation focuses on how women form
identities, habits and preferences
• Focus on women, not processes of social
expectation
• Gender socialisation explains why women
not in jobs but not why men do not accept
them

7. Micro level analysis
• HORIZON: Boosting women-led innovation in farming and rural areas
Let’s look at the assumptions:
• ‘Enhanced capacity of rural women to innovate for change, including
improved skills, solutions to challenges faced by rural women,
stronger networks and enhanced knowledge flows from, between and
towards women innovators in rural areas and in farming, facilitating
the uptake and dissemination of successful innovations and
innovation-support tools, in particular those contributing to ecological
transitions’.
• Women’s socialisation; deficiency focus; women lack the traits and
skills needed to succeed.
• Access to land? Agricultural training? Farming organisations? EU
policies?

8. Meso level
analysis
Meso – Greek – middle
Most common in analyses of race stratification
Regarding race: examine how patterns of racial prejudice
and discrimination become incorporated into the values
of the group, legitimated, transmitted to new members
through group socialisation processes, and internalised

9. Meso level
analysis
• Meso level analysis of processes of prejudice
and discrimination less developed,
particularly in agricultural studies
• Men’s focus groups, Scottish Government
research:
• Burden of being a male rather than looking
at privilege; ‘there’s pressure on the poor
guy probably to carry on the business’
• A girl may be less encouraged, but what
about a second son: ‘your sex doesn’t have a
hell of a lot to do with it’

10. Meso level
analysis –
farm men’s
focus groups
The threat of a female heir
Improving situation – machinery ring apprenticeships
Positive (essentialist) views of women – ‘women have accepted
they will lead from behind’; ‘will have their say through their
men’; ‘women don’t want to go and waste their time with these
silly idiots’
Farm men expect to be visible, to be in control

11. Macro level analysis
• Macro level analysis most common in analyses of social
class stratification
• Class stratification most usually understood as the
result of structural factors at the State/ Global level
• Little consideration given to the role of the State in
maintaining gender stratification
• At the macro level farming is seen as a sector not an
occupation

12. Macro level analysis (statistical lies)

13. Macro level analysis
• EU and State practices reinforce gender norms in
agriculture
• Many EU farming documents refer to farmers as ‘him’,
‘his’ holding
• There have been repeated efforts to correct
inequalities in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) by
region, sector, age, size of farm
• Never gender
• No consideration of how the CAP is negotiated with
farming organisations (86%) men

14. Macro level analysis
• Quote from ECA Final Report
• ‘The common agricultural policy (CAP) represents more than a third of EU
funding. The EAGF accounts for around three-quarters of the CAP, and is
mainly used to provide income support to farmers through direct payments.
It is the single biggest programme under the EU budget, accounting for more
than €300 billion in the 2014-2020 MFF. The Direct Payments Regulation
does not take gender equality into account, and limits the Member States’
ability to do so’

15. Macro level: (Think STEM Regulation)
European Commission response:
• The direct payments regulation applies
the principles of non-discrimination and
equality between men and women
enshrined in Articles 10 and 8 TFEU as
well as in Articles 21 and 23 of the
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.
It is not specifically aimed at either men
or women but rather, at farmers. None
of the recognised grounds of
discrimination (gender, disability etc.)
have any effect on farmers' eligibility for
direct payments.

16. Future directions: achieving equality
• The question of land, private property and
cultural change complex
• Macro level is really important
• Political commitment is key: Sweden/ Scotland/
Ursula von der Leyen
• Must tackle all levels: micro/ meso/ macro and
interactions: think of the EU STEM regulation
• Occupation not a sector

17. Breaking the grass ceiling!