Women's Perspectives on the Rural Crisis and Priorities for Rural Development

Abstract

This article reports on a survey of 137 rural women in 25 states that investigated the women's views of the crisis in rural America and their priorities for action on rural policy issues. The survey found that the women favored locally based cooperative economic development projects, policies to reverse the trend toward industrial agriculture, and help in improving their leadership skills and in learning more about national farm policy.The past decade has witnessed changing conditions and stress in American agriculture-a situation that has frequently been called the &dquo;farm crisis.&dquo; However, the conditions may be more accurately described as a rural crisis: All rural social and economic institutions have been affected by farm foreclosures, the decrease in the rural population, and the loss of agricultural jobs. Schools, churches, small businesses, and local governments have had difficulty maintaining their usual services with the decline in both population and tax bases. Economic stress and the aging of the rural population have increased the need for social and health services. Unfortunately, needs and resources often vary inversely (Albrecht et al.

Women's Contribution to Rural Development in Croatia: Roles, Participation and Obstacles

“…However, researchers working in other countries have found that women play a pivotal role in rural development because they can find alternative solutions and mobilise different resources (Bock 2003, Hoff 1992 to maintain and rebuild rural communities. Research in Croatia among rural women has shown that women mainly focus on social needs (Žutinić 1994), which would be highly advantageous in terms of rural development.…”