Equal opportunities and participation of women in the issue of rural development

The issue of equal opportunities for men and women living in rural areas has been given little attention so far. We wanted to raise awareness of gender issues outside cities and we focused our research on the opportunities and participation of women in local action groups dedicated to rural development.
We carried out the first systematic research that identified the factors affecting equal opportunities for men and women in their representation in decision-making bodies of the local action groups in the Moravian countryside. The resulting research report presented the main issues in this area. We presented our findings to representatives of Moravian action groups at a conference. The issue was discussed in more detailed at expert workshops, where a number of proposals were developed on how to improve the involvement of women in rural development.
The results of the project can serve as a basis for creating measures and policies in this area. The wider public has been introduced to the findings of the research including a popular educational manual. All project outputs are available on our organization’s website.