A female farmer is required to be a wife, a mother, take care of her parents, "bargain" in the fields, know how to operate a tractor and combine and produce food, not only for her family, but also for the country. Arno, but this chain is getting thinner, because none of the measures that are supposedly being taken to improve the status of rural women are properly targeted, underlines Maksim Acevski, Chief State Auditor, sublimating the findings of the regional analysis on gender equality of women from rural areas.

From the findings of the audit, which was carried out in Albania as well as in our country, it can be seen that there is no analysis of the plans to invest in kindergartens in Macedonian villages, nor is there any provision for the construction of homes for the elderly, and it cannot nor to determine how many women from rural areas used the employment and training measures.

The only positive thing is that in 2023, the maternity allowance for women farmers started, which contributed to some kind of social security for them.

- The depopulation and limited opportunities of rural residents are evident every day, and the role of rural women, which is key to the survival of villages, is invisible and unrecognized. The statistical data are devastating - 205 settlements in the country are without a single inhabitant, and - 218 are with less than 10 inhabitants. We must not allow ourselves to lose the rural woman and turn her into an industrial worker, traveling to the city and working behind machines. Its real role is to produce food, which will not only feed our population, but also export quality agricultural products. From all this, it is clear why price shocks happen to us and we eat too expensive food - there is no one to produce and cultivate the fields - pointed out Acevski.

The auditors concluded that the current measures for affirmative action in relation to the support of women in rural areas are not effective, and the condition that they have owned land for three to five years has the greatest impact on this.

-Which woman starting a business in the countryside would sign up for any measure to improve her business with such a condition - ask the auditors?

Stereotypes and discrimination must be eliminated, and the executive and legislative authorities must provide conditions for the smooth inclusion of rural women in the labor market.

- Women farmers can and know how to secure their future, become a successful entrepreneur, build a better tomorrow for themselves, for their family and for the entire social order - experts say.

According to data from the SSO for 2022, as many as 13.451 women were unpaid family workers, 6.126 women were self-employed, only 1.113 were self-employed, and 78.142 women were employed in villages.