Role of Women in Sustainable Rural Development

Abstract

Rural development was synonymous with agricultural development and, hence environmentally, safe living
conditions, and reduction in gender and income inequalities. Women’s active contribution in agricultural growth has been
promoted and many recent agricultural extension projects have been making efforts to increase women farmers’
participation; (Saito and Weidemann, 1990; Stuart, 1994). Sustainable rural development can be contextualized to three
types of region: periurban, productive agricultural lowland, and economic periphery. A range of indicators confirm the
contemporary absence of sustainable agriculture and rural development in Europe, although the constraints on sustainable
development vary among the three types of rural region. Sustainable rural development can no longer be equated solely with
agricultural development in rural regions, and a new balance is being sought between farming and restructuring economies
and societies. A distinction can be drawn between top-down and bottom-up processes in the promotion of sustainable
development, with networks of institutions in rural regions playing an increasingly influential role. However, state policies to
promote sustainability in rural regions are commonly overridden by other policy imperatives concerned with economic
growth and global competition.