Employment of rural women: green care as a chance Workshop ‘Supporting women entrepreneurs in rural areas’ Brussels, june 5 th 2013, Bettina Bock

Structure of the presentation 1. Employment of rural women 2. Situation in agriculture 3. Green care as a chance

1. Employment of rural women Across Europe  Employment of women < employment of men  Differences between women  Differences between places So, it does matter who you are and where you live

On average and across the EU Gender differences augments Towards South and Central - East

Female employment 2010Gender gap Iceland Sweden Denmark Germany Finland France Bulgaria Spain Romania Hungary Greece Italy

 Differences have to do with:  Economic strength: employment in general  Norm and values regarding women’s employment  Political support for family-work combination

Also true for rural women  Rural women ∽ urban women ● Similar level of gender (in)equality  But with clear difference between regions and level of remoteness

Predominantly rural intermediatePredominantly urban Regional dispersion Sweden Denmark (2009) Germany Finland France Bulgaria Romania Hungary Spain Greece Italy

The ‘difficult’ areas: Predominantly rural Away from urban centres Thinly populated High dependence of agriculture Few (other) employment chances Higher risk of poverty Few services

2. The situation in agriculture  Agriculture in Europe = family business  Women as main source of unpaid family labour (78%)  And increasingly farm holder

new holders of farms countriestotalLarge (> 1 ESU) Small (< 1 ESU) Sweden15%12%27% Finland11% 16% Denmark12% Germany10%9%17% France23% 29% Spain29%28%39% Greece30%29%37% Italy32%31%38% TOTAL (EU27)29%24%34%

prominent in pluri-activity & diversification Off farm work New activities on the farm

New chances in multifunctional agriculture  Processing & direct sale  Agro-tourism  Green care

Where women play a powerful role  Often responsibility of women  Linked to their education and experience  Offering new employment opportunities on the farm and in rural areas  Easier to combine work and family

3. Green- care as a chance But what is green care?  Health care & social re-integration as new on-farm activity  One of multiple functions of agriculture  New source of income

philosophy it is healthy  To work with animals/plants and living beings  To experience seasons and nature  To interact with ‘normal’ people  Doing ‘normal’, useful work  Being part of a community  The farmer as role model  Personal and individual attention

With as basic idea  ‘green’ = healthy  Being in nature = healthy  working with nature = healthy  Being in a farm = healthy

In different arrangements  Self-employment and with payment from health care institutions or insurance  Contracted/in collaboration with health-care institutions or public authorities  Arrangements differ per country

And for different target groups  Elderly people  Children with autism  Youngsters with problems  Former drug-addicts  Former prisoners  Clients with burn-out  .....

Great success in the Netherlands  Great number of farms with care activities ● 1999: 474 farms (0.5%) ● farms (1.7%), about clients  Different target groups: elderly, autistic children, young people with social problems, disabled people  Activities: predominantly day activities, re-integration  total turn-over 50 million in 2009; per farm estimated euro per farm (2009)  2/3 paid from health care: PGB and institutions  In time professionalisation with quality assurance, training and regional support centres

But they can better speak for themselves....  Green care - YouTube Green care - YouTube

for who wants to know more On the different arrangements of green care bettinabock/ On different practices in EU See COST action 866 on social farming More small videos on care farming in Europe

Thank you for you attention