Barriers to women's participation in rural policy making

Abstract

The governance of rural areas has undergone considerable changes over the past decades. Its scope has broadened to incorporate a range of issues beyond, the once dominant, agricultural interests. At the same time, the process of policy making has changed from one of government to one of governance: from centralist and state-led policy initiatives to policy formation and delivery by a combination of public and private stakeholders with a growing role for the local and regional levels (Winter, 2002; Goodwin, 1998; Storey, 1999; Rhodes, 1996). The European Union has fuelled the emphasis on the regional and local level through its regulations for the delivery of structural funds (Geddes, 2000). The EC's White Paper on European Governance states that working in partnership is one of the leading principles of ‘good governance’ (CEC, 2001). In several countries national governments have embraced multi-sector partnership working, or area-based policy making with the objective of enhancing efficient and inclusive policy delivery.Area based programmes are frequently presented as a means of addressing civic exclusion, both through the inclusive nature of the partnership structure, and through the local nature of the partnership, which is perceived to allow greater access to excluded groups than centralised policy. (Shortall, 2004, p. 113)

Citation

Bock, B.B. and Derkzen, P. (2007), "Barriers to women's participation in rural policy making", Asztalos Morell, I. and Bock, B.B. (Ed.) Gender Regimes, Citizen Participation and Rural Restructuring (Research in Rural Sociology and Development, Vol. 13), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 263-281. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1057-1922(07)13011-0