The Association of Rural Families and Women AFAMMER celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. On the occasion of its anniversary, it organised a meeting at the Planetarium of Pamplona on 17 October. The International Day of Peasant Women will also be held on 15 October. From 10:30 onwards, awards, screenings and conferences will be offered. The objective of the event is to recognize the role of women baserritarras in rural development. In this regard, the partnership will reflect on the steps and objectives that have been taken in recent years.

In the words of the partners, “some progress has been made”: “The training of rural women is the best thing in history.” On the other hand, they stress that these women “are breaking gender stereotypes” because “they work in positions traditionally related to the male gender”.

However, its members have stressed that these advances “are not enough” to achieve true equality of opportunity. They note that women are “fundamental” to maintaining rural areas: “They are the ones who care for the territories and guarantee food security.”

For this reason, the AFAMMER Association has made several petitions on the day of women baserritarras, claiming a general pact to end the “differences” between rural and urban areas: “We want to break with the lack of opportunities of women, two out of three people in Spain who go from the countryside to the city are women.” Spain is the second European country with the highest unemployment rate among rural women.

Gender violence in the center

They also stress the need to “end silence around gender violence” in small municipalities: “The data show that the number of women who report mistreatment decreases according to the size of the municipality of residence: 83.3% in women living in municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants, 78.5% in municipalities between 10,000 and 2,001 inhabitants, while in municipalities with less than 2,000 inhabitants only 66.9% of the victims report”.