The main conclusions from the study are:
1. The women's labour contribution, which is at times unreported in traditional statistics, is in fact essential for the survival and running of small family farms. However, the farm women normally play a substitute role - particularly on the unviable farms - and function as coworker ("family workforce") of the male holder on the more viable farms.
In certain parts of Spanish rural society, where the social fabric is still comparatively intact, the generation gap (from sharp cultural differences between generations) is breaking down the traditional patriarchal and "macho" order and encouraging the women to play a dynamic and modernizing role in agriculture and the rural development process.
2. With this more egalitarian cultural context emerging throughout Spanish society, young rural women are breaking the "traditional mould" of labour subordination and domestic dependence that had hitherto governed their status on the farm.
3. The growing importance of off-farm work is increasingly influencing the gender division of farm work. The multiple work activities of the household members - particularly the young women are also undermining the concept of family unity implicit in the definition of "agricultural household". The family farm is no longer the compact unit in which all generations had the same objective: the reproduction of the productive structures and family order.
4. The rural development model based on "family agriculture" which is profiled by supranational institutions responsible for agrarian policy has not yet translated into effective support for small family farms, where the bulk of rural women's work in fact occurs. What is more, the imminent structural adjustment of the Common Agricultural Policy will affect the smaller holdings and therefore the farm women in particular, although it will undoubtedly open up new horizons for the rural environment and the agri-food sector and, obviously, for the women living in this environment and working in this sector.
5. Rural women, whether working on family farms or engaged in not specifically agricultural activities (now increasingly common in the rural environment) can undoubtedly play an important role in building the rural society of the future.
