Stop the white zones of equality in our campaigns! This is the objective of the “Women and Ruralities” report drawn up by eight senators including Marie Pierre-Monier, senator from Drôme. For ten months, parliamentarians interviewed gendarmes, elected officials, associations and participated in round tables, including three in the Drôme. The conclusions of this report show persistent inequalities in the countryside: women have less access to employment, 10% of women aged 15 to 64 are inactive, compared to 5% of men in rural areas.
80% of women have a driving license in rural areas compared to 90% of men
Having a driving license is a hiring criterion, because in rural areas, the car is the most used mode of transport. According to the survey “mobility and travel “ it represents 80% of trips. According to the Senator from Drôme, Marie Pierre-Monier, “What complicates things is that you have to have the means to have two cars and not everyone can afford it. Public transport is sometimes poorly developed in the villages. We therefore gave several recommendations like the fact to develop driving simulators in high schools, to further develop carpooling and, above all, it is necessary to bring public service areas closer together to avoid travel “.
Difficulties in accessing employment
To get to your place of work, it is better to have a solution to babysit. Except that according to 2017 figures from the Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics, rural families have on average eight places in crèche within 15 minutes for a hundred children under three years old, against 26 in urban areas. When childcare services exist, they are not always adapted to the needs of mothers, especially in the case of late or staggered working hours.
The eight senators want to promote the entrepreneurship of women by awarding prizes in certain departments because in each rural territory there is local know-how and this may be a recourse to the difficulty of finding a salaried job.
– Source Insee
Women even more affected by medical desertification
In 13 departments of France there is no possibility of being followed by a doctor qualified in gynecology medical practitioner in regular activity and this poses difficulties in screening for cervical cancer.
40% of women fail to be screened for cervical cancer
In the senators’ report, Isabelle Héron, president of the National Federation of Colleges of Medical Gynecology specifies ” in underprivileged social settings, it has been shown that around 40% of women fail to be screened for cervical cancer, and that many postmenopausal patients no longer consult. In addition, women in a precarious situation with co-morbidities, such as morbid obesity, or in situations of disability, often do not dare to consult “.
In conclusion, the report shows that women largely suffer from all the recurring difficulties of rural areas such as the problems of white zones, isolation and medical desertification.