What are the key challenges and lock-ins for achieving more a gender transformative CAP?
Gender is not a priority: Investing in gender equality is not only an ethical and legal obligation, but also good for society as a whole as it contributes to generational renewal and to a more efficient use of public money. Gender equality, however, tends to take a back seat to supposedly more pressing issues in the CAP negotiations.
Gender differences are ignored: EU agriculture policies are gender blind, meaning they fail to recognise and account for differences in the ways women and gender-diverse people farm and experience farming. In doing so they reinforce both direct and indirect forms of gender discrimination.
Patriarchal norms continue to dominate: A major lock-in that results in biases against women, gender-diverse people and marginalised groups are institutionalised in patriarchy. Patriarchy is an ideology that upholds men’s systemic dominance in ways that translate to a rejection of equal structures in both public and private spheres of life. Patriarchy is deeply engrained and thus often difficult to make visible, but patriarchy works against everyone’s interest.