Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-03-11-Speech-2-386"
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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, ‘Women in rural areas of the EU’ – under this title we in the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality have together been compiling facts and proposals for solutions. I would like to thank my fellow Members for their cooperation and the Secretariat for its support.
We have a term in Germany: country girl. In the past more so than today everyone had their own idea of what this was. Some say these are creative, dependable women, highly principled and deeply religious. Others say they are women who are behind the times, know little or nothing and are therefore ignorant, perhaps even naïve as well.
Neither of these descriptions gets to the heart of the matter. Rural areas provide precisely the best conditions for a fulfilled life, for families involved in village communities, integrated into nature and the environment. Today we are very well aware that women’s life models vary enormously. They also have to be adaptable, however, not tied down or restricted by their living conditions. Women today want to be active in the workforce and they also want families. Today they want and can have both. Politics and society must create the framework conditions for this.
Life in the countryside offers opportunities and, of course, generates risks. It is a personal decision that prompts women, after considering the facts, to move into urban areas or stay in the villages. The statistical data prove that well-educated women are the first to leave the villages. They leave behind empty nurseries and schools and ultimately ageing and empty villages. Women’s decisions therefore also have a demographic dimension.
According to the Commission’s estimates, the rural regions generate 45% of the gross value added and 53% of those with jobs live here. Rural areas therefore also have an economic dimension.
The entire development potential must therefore be used and upgraded. It is no longer sufficient to discuss the future of women in the countryside only within the framework of the common agricultural policy. Women still work as farmers, but they are also employees and salaried staff and are very often active as assisting spouses in small- and medium-sized enterprises or even as independent entrepreneurs themselves. Large gaps still need to be filled here. The position of women and assisting spouses in small- and medium-sized enterprises needs to be stabilised in the social sector in order to provide for sickness and old age.
Women are particularly affected by the lack of infrastructure in rural areas. Women combine family and work, which means driving their children between school and leisure activities, caring for the older generation and not quite losing sight of their own interests. The fact that rural areas have a deficient infrastructure – a shortage of roads, post offices, medical services, fire services and emergency doctors – has been well known for a long time. The fact that additional problems are now emerging, however, for example in broadband supply, is not acceptable. Women, too, need fast access via DSL to be able to participate in their many areas of activity.
Women’s participation in public life – on local councils, in initiatives and associations – can bring about changes. In rural areas, too, special efforts are needed to achieve equal participation by women. I would therefore like to conclude with one further request: include women in the decision-making bodies! They know best what needs to be changed because they are always there on the spot and they are up against both work and family, whereas men do either one or the other."@en1
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