• The Thematic Group was formed by 45 women from different disciplines who contributed their vision on women in rural areas.
• The virtual meeting lasted two days, during which a series of complaints were grouped around five key themes.

" Co-responsibility is not conciliation ." These are some of the conclusions reached by the 45 rural women who formed the "Rural Women" Thematic Group organized by the RRN. during May 17 and 18 nationwide.

These women—with multidisciplinary profiles—have spoken loud and clear during the two virtual days of the Thematic Group, whose objective is to collaborate with the RRN in designing an action plan in this area in the coming months that is consistent with and faithful to the reality of women in rural areas.

To better organize the proposals, the debate revolved around five structural themes :

1. Training
2. Associationism and networks
3. Living conditions
4. Economic activities
5. Agricultural / agri-food sector

Survey

Prior to the meeting, the RRN launched a survey to understand women's perceptions of their life plans in rural areas: what needs they identify as priorities and how they think the RRN could help them. The results of this survey guided the themes that underpinned both meetings.

With a participation of 697 women , the age range of participation shows that:

• 50% are between 42 and 55 years old.
• 25% are between 31 and 41 years old.
• 13% of women are between 55 and 65 years old.

What is the training of the participating women?

• 74% of those surveyed have university degrees (at any level).
• 16% of women have completed vocational training
• 3% of those surveyed only completed primary education .

The survey provides a scale of rural women's satisfaction with their rural life—from 0 to 10 ( 7 points ). It is noteworthy that 2% of respondents gave their satisfaction with their rural life a score of 0 , and 12% gave it a score of 10 .

Regarding the major obstacle they encounter when living in rural areas, the most common is “lack of work and poor working conditions” (65%), followed by poor communications (57%) , poor connectivity (43%) and a lack of education and health care (43%) .

Hence, 6% request training in entrepreneurship and business management , and 5% request training in computer and digital tools . 74% of those surveyed request a mixed (online-in-person) option.

Regarding the number of inhabitants in the municipality where the women surveyed reside, 63.7% indicated that it had fewer than 5,000 inhabitants.

By autonomous community , the territories with the highest participation were Castile and León (18.51%), followed by Aragon (13.63%) and Andalusia (12.77%).

Thematic Group

The 45 women who formed the multidisciplinary Thematic Group met online for two days. During these sessions, they shared their ideas in small breakout rooms and subsequently shared their ideas about the actions they would like to see reflected in the RRN's action plan for rural women in the coming months. This action plan will also take into account the interviews conducted by the RRN's Regional Antennas with women belonging to women's organizations and associations in the region.

Broadly speaking, the requests that have been expressed, in accordance with the themes outlined above and consistent with the survey results, are:

1. Promote female entrepreneurship and leadership in all areas, including schools and universities, by providing support and advisory services to the regions.

2. Offer training tailored to the territories and target audience, combining in-person courses and workshops with virtual training. This training should be taught by female entrepreneurs. It also calls for the possibility of family-life balance.

3. Promote networking among female entrepreneurs and encourage sponsorship of emerging projects by veteran women.

In the coming days, the meeting presentations will be available on the National Rural Network website at the following links: May 17 and May 18. Recordings of the group can also be viewed on our YouTube channel.