This summary report was provided by the ruralwomeninspain@yahoogroups.com discussion group c/- of Karolee Wilson, Australian Women in Agriculture member.

1. is now one of the central objectives on the rural development agenda. The gender "strategy," with which all the different phases of policies formulated from that perspective must be imbued, is for rural women to work collectively against gender subordination and to claim the labour, political and cultural rights belonging to them.

2. Gender inequality hampers not only the personal development of women and men but also the development of countries themselves, and it strangles any chances there might be of palliating the world's serious problems of poverty and food insecurity. The feminisation of poverty and social exclusion has a special impact on rural women, above all in countries with a lower level of human development.

3. Access to food is intimately related with gender issues. Despite rural women's undeniable contribution to the supply and making of food, producing 50% of all the food grown in the world, rural women themselves as a collective are still especially vulnerable to the drama of hunger.

4. The globalisation processes we are witnessing today form part of a deep-reaching transformation of world economics and politics, which affects not only nations and their policies but also the living and working conditions of all human beings, even in the remotest of rural villages.

Because rural women are especially hard-hit by gender inequalities and discrimination, they can be especially hurt by globalisation in countries with a lower degree of human development, where such processes may sharpen social inequalities between classes, genders and ethnic groups. From the standpoint of some rural women, a critical analysis of globalisation would seem to be needed. It is therefore proposed that policy attention be focused on the definition and application of a constructive agenda for world justice, where equal opportunities for women and men are considered a fundamental principle. This is not a matter of being for or against globalisation; the question is how to act within globalisation itself.

5. Full integration of gender-related aspects in development programs is essential for palliating food insecurity and reducing poverty in countries where that is a problem and for designing an environmentally-friendly agricultural system that can provide healthful foods.

6. From the worldwide standpoint, important strides may be said to have been made in rural women's civil and political rights, but headway must also be made in terms of their economic, social and cultural rights, which is where women can find access to and control of productive resources and gain empowerment. In some countries rural women must deal with additional difficulties when trying to gain access to such elementary resources as land, water and loans, simply because they are women.

7. It has become clear that rural women need to have a heavier presence in decision-making, agricultural matters and all other forums where political guidelines are laid out. Women's associations play a major role in the achievement of these aims.

8. Women farmers' role and rights deserve to be respected and supported by the nations and societies to which they belong. Women who farm, be it by choice or by necessity, must be held in the same esteem as their male counterparts and consulted as equals about farm product production and trade and about farm production methods for the sustenance of human health, international prosperity and the global environment.

9. The woman/environment/sustainable development paradigm, which feeds on the influences of a wide variety of theories and is based on women's closeness to nature, has gradually taken on increasing importance. Although the paradigm is controversial, women's relationship with the ecosystems that support them does tend to be different from men's.

Thanks to their special knowledge of cultivation systems, seed varieties, soil types, water management, medicinal plants, diverse uses for the forest and so on, rural women fulfil an essential function in the sustainable use of natural resources and food. Bio-diversity, the conservation of phytogenetic resources and the maintenance of agro-ecosystems depend largely on women's knowledge.

10. The achievement of sustainable development, the 21st century's greatest challenge, will only be possible if gender-sensitive approaches are incorporated in the planning, execution and evaluation of public policies on the gender issue.

11. Many rural women live with one foot in the traditional role of supporting the family and the other in the role of family farmhand. The family farm is a fuzzy area, conceptually speaking, where raising the family and raising the crops often go hand-in-hand. Women work full-time, but their work is not recognized socially and does not appear in official statistics. It might therefore be termed invisible work.

12. The question of women's legal status in agriculture lies at the root of the problem of professionalisation. Possession of clear formal legal status opens windows not only to acknowledgement and self-esteem for women, but also to autonomy on the job, empowerment in daily life and representation in farmers' professional organizations, where the norms are primarily masculine-oriented.

13. Millions of poor women of the world still have no access to new information technologies, despite IT's importance for distance learning in rural areas. It is therefore considered necessary for rural women to become involved in understanding and using information technologies.

14. Women farmers have to receive more training if the future of farming is to be ensured. Efforts to educate rural women not only can increase agricultural productivity in developing countries but also will help significantly to improve health and nutrition in families and to reduce the grave problems of AIDS in many rural areas.

15. Agricultural extension and research systems must strive harder to involve rural women in research. Such involvement would make it easier to equip rural women with the technology and knowledge they need and thus to definitely advance in the achievement of world food security.

16. Progress must be made collecting and analysing data broken down by sex and linking those data to significant socio-economic variables to evaluate the importance of rural women in socio-economic structures.

17. Rural women provide a guarantee of the necessary territorial equilibrium, while they are also the underlying support for the diversification of economic activities.

18. Rural women have been proven to play an important role in the construction of the new rural society, and their participation in the model of multifunctional, sustainable family farming called for in the new common agricultural policy has been proven to be indispensable.

19. The following proposals have been made to improve the situation of rural women for the future:

a) Their work must be recognized and measured in economic macro indicators.

b) Real joint ownership of family farms must be increased so women and men can enjoy the same rights.

c) Access to elementary resources such as water, land and funds must be facilitated; this goal will prove evasive unless women are empowered.

d) Emphasis must be laid upon education, so that women can take advantage of the opportunities stemming from the changes happening in the farming and livestock-raising sector.

e) Innovative activities must be outlined within the framework of local development.

f) New demands for urban products and services must be heeded, but not at the cost of the needs and acquired rights of women living in the rural environment.

g) The service sector must be developed in rural areas; it is a very important sphere where new sources of employment are generated.

h) Rural women's social participation in their environment must be developed through farm product associations and groups, local action groups, rural development centres, professional agrarian organizations, etc.

i) Incentives must be provided to support farming systems run by women and to

encourage women to remain in rural areas.

In conclusion, it may be stated that developing countries have not held genuine access to the phenomenon of globalisation. Actually, it could even be said that nowadays full access to a globalised market is what is making the difference between rich countries and poor ones. The serious lack of resources and access to technology accentuates the inequality between rich and poor and affects women more than men, especially women living in rural environments, where it is even harder to gain access to resources. These things make it nearly impossible to talk about sustainable development in the less-developed countries.

Much has been said about the role of women, especially the women who live in rural environments. Their very important work in plant species conservation, food security and, in short, the sustainable use of resources and the achievement of peace among different peoples has been made clear.

Therefore investing in rural women is fundamental, as a very important way of alleviating the poverty and social inequalities crippling us today. This type of measure will in turn help the resources earmarked for introducing gender mainstreaming in the national policies of the less-developed countries to reach their objectives.