HR4RS stamp
Nora Fernandez Fernandez
Next Friday, February 3, the III International Congress 'Women and Rural Environment' will be held in Toledo, at the Faculty of Social and Legal Sciences of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM).
Specifically, the meeting place will be the Convent of San Pedro Mártir and academics, professionals and doctoral students will meet there to discuss the issue of depopulation from a gender perspective.
The Congress, organized by AFAMMER (Association of Rural Women and Families), the URJC and the UCLM, will cover the entire day and will delve into the importance of the role of women in establishing the population in certain places.
According to Pilar Laguna, co-founder of the URJC Education Observatory and member of the scientific committee of this Congress, "everyone talks about depopulation, but the problem is not being well addressed, and thus it is difficult to find solutions ”.
After studying society from various research groups, Laguna assures that "women and the family are determining elements to establish population in the territory." For this reason, "investigating the problems of women and the conditions in which they live in the rural world from any perspective is going to be a firm and determined commitment to improve the quality of life of these women, but also to fight against depopulation and thus contributing to the economic development of the country”, Laguna specifies.
“Addressing the problem of depopulation without taking this point into account,” continues Laguna, would be a mistake. “We must direct our gaze and analysis towards women, who have always been the anchor that settles everything, and begin to draw conclusions from there. If we look at any SDG and compare our results, we see that they are all related: equality, the improvement of living conditions or the commitment to quality services”.
The first part of this Congress, as Laguna indicates, was held in December 2022 and brought together more than 1000 women from all over Spain to talk about the rural environment from a gender perspective.
After that first meeting, the Scientific Committee of the Congress was set up, which is launching this second part today, which includes the research, findings and future lines of study in this academic field.
"A very important thing about this congress," Laguna points out, "is that it does not only include the most scientific and research part, but also has a dimension of knowledge transfer, change, and community creation."
Pilar Laguna and Mónica Segovia, both professors in the Department of Business Economics, will take part in the Congress with a presentation that "analyzes the obstacles and facilitators in women's entrepreneurship in rural areas," says the teacher.
“On many occasions there is the mistake, in believing that when we talk about the rural environment we are talking about women farmers, ranchers or activities in the primary sector, and the rural environment is also tourism, health and it is a financial sector, and as such we have to work so that don't get poorer”, comments Pilar Laguna.
The complete program can be consulted from the following link: III International Congress 'Women and Rural Environment'