FARM TOURISM, GENDER AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN SPAIN

This study analyzes the changing role of women in the new economic activity of farm tourism in two distinct areas of Spain: Catalonia and Galicia. One of the most evident effects of economic restructuring processes in rural areas is the need to create in situ employment alternatives to agriculture. Farm tourism is a valuable alternative for women which both allows the combination of domestic responsibilities with tourism work and represents an income source that supports continued small-scale farming and conservation of the countryside environment. Women's perceptions of the built and natural environments are changing in response to these activities.