Tendencias y retos de la nueva generación de mujeres para frenar el despoblamientoempleo, emprendimiento y turismo rural

Resum

In recent years, the phrase demographic challenge has gained significant traction, as it encapsulates a series of political, environmental, demographic, social, productive, and cultural processes that are affecting rural territories as a whole. One of the most prominent issues that has arisen is the phenomenon of depopulation, which is irrefutably interrelated to deagrarianisation. The difficulty of imbuing a sense of purpose into territories that have lost their raison d'être has led to a predicament wherein they must face the dilemma of either reinventing themselves or succumbing to the gradual but inevitable path towards extinction. Thus, under the term demographic challenge, encompasses what for decades has been known as the rural development processes that have been promoted to counteract the negative effects of the progressive ageing of the population, the masculinisation of the rural environment and the economic impact of depopulation on the territory, the environment, the culture, and the social structure. This series of articles aims to elucidate several phenomena that have contributed to the empowerment of women in rural areas (Article 1), as well as to identify the obstacles that impede such progress. Despite the challenges, the emergence of successful territories where women have spearheaded diversification and created new economic activities has been observed (Article 2). Women have achieved these accomplishments through negotiation processes that take place both in private and public domains. (Article 3). In this negotiation process, in addition to redrawing the economic structure of the rural environment, women contribute with their diversification to generate new vectors of development for the territory. In doing so, they increase social capital, strengthen the outsourcing of the economy, and facilitate connections between the rural and urban environments. The research conducted herein commences with an acknowledgement of the efficacy of rural development policies, particularly LEADER, in creating novel opportunities for female entrepreneurship and the generation of new vital prospects in rural areas. The comprehension of the factors that motivate women to engage in entrepreneurship, as well as the assessment of the impacts of their activities on the territory in terms of economic activity and employment generation, the opening up of rural environments, and the coordination of the actors that constitute the territory, have facilitated the formulation of a hypothesis that posits the establishment of synergies between the territory, the alteration of women's roles in rural environments, and the ability of tourism activities to effectuate the process of reterritorialisation of rural areas as the most compelling explanation for successful territories. In this evolution, the concept of 'shaping' has been identified. Through channels of participation, bottom-up territorial development processes are deployed, in which the territory becomes another agent, being the physical and psychological space in which women's dynamics take place, both in the public and private spheres. And it is here, within the interaction with patriarchal structures to promote new business and tourism activities, that the empowerment of women takes place, as a result of a process of negotiation for the incorporation of tourism activity into the family economy, but also in the process of building the destination.