Social status of rural women in the focus of a developmental project

Dragana, Stjepanović-Zaharijevski

Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU

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http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/Article.aspx?ID=0350-08610654233S

2006-2020/03/06/22:30:02

One of the goals of the project called "The milky river", which deals with the integral development of the dairy production, is to initiate the development of the sustainable and profitable production of milk and dairy products through grouping producers and supporting their position in the society they live in. Women are more than men engaged in the dairy production chain and they have a direct view of the whole dairy production process. So it was necessary to adapt the grouping to their needs, as well as to make some practical mechanisms of their involvement in the project activities. In this way, the strategy of the project helped with offering equal chances to women and men, and by reducing the gender inequality, it also helped with making a chance for a new life perspective for women. Through interviews and by focus-grouping the data were collected which represented the first picture of the dairy production in the region of Niš, including its gender characteristics, among other things. Two years later, the qualitative analysis of the indicators of the rural women’s social status in this region in the context of the realization of the project activities, has shown that there has been an important movement forward towards the gender equality which can be attributed to the successful project implementation. Women, as an important factor in the dairy production chain, seem to be joined and encouraged. They seem to be empowered at the level of their knowledge decision making and autonomous activity taking through various forms of education, joint farmer group work, as well as through various forms of cooperation with supporting institutions and other partners within the project activity framework. The overwhelming impression seems to be that joint work and cooperation are necessary conditions for the development of any individual farmers’ production, as well as for the referent rural development which requires the support of all the available human resources. The project titled "The milky river" is a possibility for and an initiation of women to change the regional, historical experience of being marginalized. It is also a chance for women to define their needs and to promote themselves as equal economic and social factors in their society - instead of being assistants on their housing or family estate, now they become farmer-producers.

gender, development project, gender equality, social status of women