The Ripple Effect

Toward a Gender-Transformative CAP: Policy Impact from SWIFT

In June 2025, the SWIFT project released a bold policy brief urging the European Commission to redesign the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to meaningfully advance gender equality and social justice in agriculture. Building on field-based research and dialogues in Spain, Poland, and Austria, the brief critiques how current CAP structures—though nominally gender-aware—remain ineffective and exclusionary.

The brief highlights systemic lock-ins: patriarchal norms, gender-blind subsidies, and under-recognition of women’s and migrant workers’ contributions. It proposes a transformative vision anchored in feminist economics and human rights, calling for gender-disaggregated data, inclusive budgetary practices, and the integration of care work into CAP evaluation frameworks.

Five concrete recommendations stand out: institutionalising gender mainstreaming, addressing structural inequalities in subsidy access, supporting agroecological small farms, recognising marginalised groups’ contributions, and strengthening social conditionality to protect farm workers’ rights.

As the EU prepares for CAP 2028, this brief positions SWIFT as a critical voice shaping policy debates—and putting feminist, just, and sustainable food systems at the heart of Europe’s agricultural future.