Authors: Blanca Casares and Miranda García (AEIDL)
On 24 March 2025, over 110 participants convened online for the new session of the European Policy Forum on Women-led innovation in agriculture and rural areas. The event focused on how public policies can better support rural women and women farmers across Europe, in particular, EU Funds.
Hosted by the European Association for Innovation in Local Development (AEIDL) as part of the GRASS CEILING project, the session showcased national good practices and encouraged open discussions about how to build stronger and more inclusive public support mechanisms for the post-2027 programming period.
Sally Shortall, GRASS CEILING coordinator, and Charlene Lambert from the Women Entrepreneurship Platform, presented recent findings from the project.
Blanca Casares Guillén, policy expert at AEIDL and coordinator of the Forum, introduced the Forum’s objectives and activities, further illuminating the EU’s political landscape and its ongoing commitment to gender equality and women’s rights.
One key part of the session focused on national practices using EU funds to advance gender equality in rural development. Isabel Aguilar Pastor from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food shared insights on Spain’s CAP Strategic Plan, highlighting opportunities for rural women through EARDF programming and their participation in rural communities and the agricultural sector; Ana Lite Mateo from the Institute of Women (Spanish Ministry of Equality) spoke about the Rural Women’s Challenge programme to promote female entrepreneurship in rural areas, financed by the European Social Fund; James Claffey from the Irish CAP Network provided an in-depth explanation of Ireland’s mentorship programmes and the Women’s Farmer Capital Investment Scheme, highlighting key initiatives such as ACORNS (Accelerating the Creation of Rural Nascent Start-Ups) and TAMS3 (Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme) and Fiona Leslie (Scottish Government) described the policy journey that led in 2019 to the creation of Scotland’s Women in Agriculture (WiA) Taskforce and presented its current development programme.
A high-level round-table discussion, moderated by Blanca Casares, brought together high-level speakers to look at how public support can be systematised to support women in farming and rural areas.
Elena Schubert (European Commission – DG AGRI) highlighted the European Commission’s efforts to enhance women’s participation in agriculture through initiatives like the Vision and the Roadmap, the forthcoming Women in Farming Platfom, and the Generational Renewal Strategy, emphasising that greater gender inclusion can boost competitiveness and GDP while underscoring the need for improved gender tracking in the EU budget. Sally Shortall (GRASS CEILING coordinator) emphasised the importance of tracking funding for women, increasing female representation in STEM and corporate boards, challenging persistent stereotypes, and leveraging regulations like parental leave. Maria Nikolopoulou (European Economic and Social Committee) highlighted that regulatory measures like work-life balance and paid parental leave are crucial for supporting women and she highlighted initiatives like the EU Organic Awards that “promote women’s success stories.”
Maura Farrell (FLIARA project) called for gender equality to be “a permanent and structured part of public policy,” with dedicated funding, monitoring, independent audit and visibility for women’s contributions. Sari Rautio (European Committee of the Regions) underlined that “women are underrepresented in rural decision-making, and that must change,” and advocated for mentoring, better data, networking, local-level policies and positive discrimination measures, childcare support and other community-based care programmes. “The CoR Opinion on post-2027 LEADER also calls for greater involvement of women in decision-making public. Women are less involved in LAGs decision making for instance”.
Louise Méhauden (EU4Advice project) noted that “advisory services appear as a solution for many women,” but emphasised the need for “gender disaggregated data and accurate indicators.”. She remarked that the particularities of women in value supply chains should be taken into consideration. Mar Delgado (University of Córdoba) shared insights from the MOVING and DESIRA projects, revealing that women’s needs in farming and rural areas are still poorly understood. She reflected on the usefulness of certain online platforms because some major challenges for women farmers are the lack of time, digital skills, and financing, sometimes having to return the funding. Laura Kaun (European Women’s Lobby) concluded by stressing the importance of the equality framework including gender representation, care policies, and gender budgeting.
Cristina Guarda (Member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development) also contributed to this roundtable via video message, echoing the shared view across the panel. Guarda called for gender equality to be set as a specific objective in the next CAP reform, with measurable targets, mandatory tasks to report about it, stronger coordination across EU funds, and gender-disaggregated data.
Presentations from all speakers are now available here, and the session recordings can be found on the project’s YouTube channel. A Highlights Report summarising the main takeaways from the event will be published soon.
AEIDL and Copa-Cogeca are coordinating the European Policy Forum for women-led innovation to drive progress in women-led socio-ecological innovations within farming, rural economies, and communities. By mobilising a diverse range of stakeholders, the Forum fosters impactful dialogue and collaborative efforts toward sustainable change.
Do you want to be part? Sign up here!: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/GRASSCEILING_Forum