Women’s return to the countryside: protagonists of the new rural dynamics in Catalonia

Abstract

Considering the importance of women’s role in rural settlements and in depopulation processes, this paper shows the influence of gender power relations on youth emigration processes and its female over-representation. It analyzes the new back-to-the-land movements led by young women, with university degrees, and with their own professional project for the territory. This return must be understood as part of the context of change in the current rural environment, characterized by a growing diversity of spaces, by the emergence of new ones and by new rural-urban relationships and new meanings of both concepts as well as their binary construction. Innovation, the construction of new links with the territory and the challenge of patriarchal structures shape the daily experiences of these professionals and are key to explain the new rural dynamics and to make any future research.

Keywords: Women, back-to-the-land movement, rurality, innovation, patriarchy, Catalonia.