On October 15, we celebrate International Day of Rural Women, a date that seeks to highlight the silent but indispensable work that rural women have carried out throughout history. In territories like Lanzarote, this date takes on a special meaning, not only because of the importance that agriculture has had in the survival of the island, but also because of the effort that rural women have dedicated and still dedicate today to keeping alive the traditions that are a legacy and source of imperishable wisdom.
However, the figure of the rural woman has remained largely invisible, both in research and historical accounts and in decision-making spaces. Lanzarote, like other economies that were clearly agricultural, still carries the weight of a machista structure that has relegated women to the background, making their work perceived as just an extension of domestic responsibilities and little else.
The challenges of progress in the countryside, therefore, involve continuing to make these problems visible and betting on policies that promote real equality of opportunities.
It is essential to promote rural women's access to higher education, technological training and financial resources, as well as ensure that their voice is heard in the spaces where decisions are made about the future of agriculture and the development of the primary sector.
Talking about rural women is thinking about our mothers, aunts, grandmothers; it is bringing to mind those who preceded us and imagining those who are already walking towards the future. Because being a rural woman today is not a condition that one wants to escape from, but a title to be proud of, with pride and a sense of belonging to the territory.
I am from Tinajo and I say it with my mouth full. I was fortunate to spend my childhood and youth among the silhouettes of its volcanoes and the fields of crops, sometimes generous in their offerings, other times stingy, greedy. And, although a new prosperity allowed my family to give me studies outside the island and forge a future with the tools of the book and the slate, instead of the hoe and the hoe, I returned to my town and there I contributed my grain of sand for many years to help the students of my municipality have identical opportunities.
But this story is not only that of Lanzarote; it is the story shared by millions of rural women in the world. From the mountains of the Andes to the plains of Africa, they sustain local economies, feed communities and protect the environment. Their struggle for equal opportunities, for fair access to land and for being heard in the spaces of power, is the global struggle for a justice that we still have to achieve.
