Rural women
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/India_-_Faces_-_Rural_women_driving_their_own_change_1_%282229752965%29.jpg/220px-India_-_Faces_-_Rural_women_driving_their_own_change_1_%282229752965%29.jpg)
Rural womenare a fundamental part of rural communities around the world. They play an important part in rural society, providing care and being involved in number of economic pursuits such as subsistence farming, petty trading and off-farm work. In most parts of the world, rural women work very hard but earn very little.[1]
Women often suffer discrimination because they are not allowed to have the same ownership of land as men. Most of what they earn does not directly stay in their control, because of unequal gender roles or discrimination.
Empowering rural women can help not only with alleviating the poverty of individual women and families, but also with empowering the entire community—changing access to education, employment and other benefits ofrural development.To recognize this, the international community often setsinternational developmentgoals that track investment and impact on lives of rural women, and the United Nations sponsors the International Day of Rural Women.[2]
Rural area |
---|
Poverty
[edit]Rural women are particularly disadvantaged, both as poor and as women.[3]Women in both rural and urban areas face a higher risk of poverty and more limited economic opportunities than their male counterparts.[4]The number of rural women living in extreme poverty rose by about 50 percent over the past twenty years.[3]Women in rural poverty live under the same harsh conditions as their male counterparts, but experience additional cultural and policy biases which undervalue their work in both the informal, and if accessible, formal labor markets.[5]The 2009 World Survey states that "women play an active role in agriculture and rural livelihoods as unpaid family labour, independent farmers and wage labour, often without access to land, credit and other productive assets."[5]
Women's contribution to the rural economy is generally underestimated, as women perform a disproportionate amount ofcare workthat often goes unrecognized because it is not seen as economically productive.[6]Though in some nations cultural and societal norms prevent women from working outside the home, in other countries, especially in rural communities in Africa, women work as major food producers, improving household food and income security.[5][6]Families in extreme poverty are even more dependent on women's work both inside and outside the home, resulting in longer days and harder work for women[6]Thefeminization of povertyis a concept that is applicable in both urban and rural settings.
Role in agricultural communities
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/Women_smallholder_farmers_in_Kenya.jpg/226px-Women_smallholder_farmers_in_Kenya.jpg)
Gender roles in agricultureare a frequent subject of study bysociologistsandfarm economists.Historians also study them, as they are important in understanding thesocial structureofagrarian,and evenindustrial,societies. Agriculture provides many job opportunities and livelihoods around the world. It can also reflect gender inequality and uneven distribution of resources and privileges among gender.[7]
In particular, pastoralist, ethnic minority, indigenous and rural women continue to face numerous obstacles when trying to access and control natural resources, technological devices and agricultural services; also, they are not involved in processes of decision-making. Most of the time, such obstacles have their roots in practices of discrimination, which highly influence women's independence.[8][9]
According to the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, women usually have a harder time obtaining land, tools and knowledge than men, especially in developing countries.[citation needed]Several organizations such asFood and Agriculture Organizationand independent research have indicated that increasing gender corporation can bring more profits and food security for the community.[10][11][12]
In general, women account for a greater share of agricultural employment at lower levels of economic development, as inadequate education, limited access to basic infrastructure and markets, high-unpaid work burden and poor rural employment opportunities outside agriculture severely limit women’s opportunities for off-farm work.[13]
Women make up well over 50 percent of the agricultural labour force in many sub- Saharan African countries. About half of the labour force in agriculture is female in several countries in Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Viet Nam.[13]
Women who work in agricultural production tend to do so under highly unfavourable conditions. They tend to be concentrated in the poorest countries, where alternative livelihoods are not available, and they maintain the intensity of their work in conditions of climate-induced weather shocks and in situations of conflict.[13]
Women are less likely to participate as entrepreneurs and independent farmers and are engaged in the production of less lucrative crops. Often, women are unpaid family workers or casual workers in agriculture. Social norms may also constrain women from producing crops and participating in activities dominated by men.[13]
The gender gap in land productivity between female- and male managed farms of the same size is 24 percent. On average, women earn 18.4 percent less than men in wage employment in agriculture; this means that women receive 82 cents for every dollar earned by men.[13]Feminization of agriculture
[edit]Infeminist economics,thefeminization of agriculturerefers to the measurable increase of women's participation in theagricultural sector,particularly in thedeveloping world.[14][15]The phenomenon started during the 1960s with increasing shares over time. In the 1990s, duringliberalization,the phenomenon became more pronounced and negative effects appeared in the ruralfemale population.[15]Afterwards, agricultural markets became gendered institutions, affecting men and women differently. In 2009World Bank,FAO&IFADfound that over 80 per cent of ruralsmallholderfarmers worldwide were women, this was caused by men migrating to find work in other sectors.[16][17]Out of all the women in the labor sector, the UN found 45-80% of them to be working in agriculture[18]
The term has also been applied to other phenomena, including increasing shares of women in the agricultural workforce, male outmigration from rural areas, decreasing women's opportunities in agricultural productivity, and lower rural pay due to skill exclusions.[19]Activists have argued that the trend is dangerous and leads tofood insecurity.[20]Impact on food security
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/A_mothers_support_group_in_Lodwar%2C_northern_Kenya%2C_September_2011_%286219651215%29.jpg/220px-A_mothers_support_group_in_Lodwar%2C_northern_Kenya%2C_September_2011_%286219651215%29.jpg)
References
[edit]- ^Kak, Shakti (1994)."Rural Women and Labour Force Participation".Social Scientist.22(3/4): 35–59.doi:10.2307/3517622.ISSN0970-0293.JSTOR3517622.
- ^"International Day of Rural Women 15 October".United Nations.Retrieved2023-10-30.
- ^abJazaïry, Idriss; Alamgir, Mohiuddin; Panuccio, Theresa (1992).The State of World Rural Poverty: An Inquiry into Its Causes and Consequences.New York: University Press.ISBN9789290720034.
- ^Haynie, Dana L. and Gorman, Bridget K. 1999.“A Gendered Context of Opportunity: Determinants of Poverty across Urban and Rural Labor Markets”The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 40, No. 2, pp. 177-197.
- ^abcWorld Survey. 2009. “Access to Land, Housing and Other Productive Resources.” Chapter 3, pp. 27–40, and Chapter 4, pp. 41-46
- ^abcUNICEF. 2007. "Equality in Employment," in The State of the World's Children. New York: United Nations Children’s Fund. Chapter 3, pp. 37–49.
- ^Khachaturyan, Marianna; Peterson, E. Wesley F. (2018-02-07)."Does Gender Really Matter in Agriculture?"(PDF).Cornhusker Economics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
- ^Resurrecciónet al.,2019
- ^Women's leadership and gender equality in climate action and disaster risk reduction in Africa − A call for action.Accra: FAO & The African Risk Capacity (ARC) Group. 2021.doi:10.4060/cb7431en.ISBN978-92-5-135234-2.S2CID243488592.
- ^Garcia, Alicea Skye; Wanner, Thomas (2017). "Gender inequality and food security: Lessons from the gender-responsive work of the International Food Policy Research Institute and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation".Food Security.9(5): 1091–1103.doi:10.1007/s12571-017-0718-7.S2CID255605665.
- ^"Shared labour, shared rewards: men and women farming together in Sri Lanka | Gender | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations".www.fao.org.Retrieved2018-09-12.
- ^"Document card | FAO | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations".www.fao.org.Retrieved2018-09-12.
- ^abcdeThe status of women in agrifood systems - Overview.Rome: FAO. 2023.doi:10.4060/cc5060en.S2CID258145984.
- ^"Gender | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations".www.fao.org.
- ^abDeere, 2009 p. 99
- ^Robinson-Pant, Anna (2016).Learning knowledge and skills for agriculture to improve rural livelihoods(PDF).UNESCO. p. 30.ISBN978-92-3-100169-7.
- ^World Bank, FAO & IFAD. 2009. Gender in agriculture sourcebook. Washington, DC. World Bank.
- ^"WomenWatch: Women, Gender Equality and Climate Change".www.un.org.
- ^Whitehead, 2009 p.45
- ^ActionAid 2010
- ^[1],World Food Programme Gender Policy Report. Rome, 2009.
- ^Spieldoch, Alexandra (2011)."The Right to Food, Gender Equality and Economic Policy".Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL).
- ^FAO, ADB (2013).Gender Equality and Food Security - Women's Empowerment as a Tool against Hunger(PDF).Mandaluyong, Philippines: Asian Development Bank.ISBN978-92-9254-172-9.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2018-01-28.Retrieved2013-12-01.
- ^Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook, World Food Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization, and International Fund for Agricultural Development (2009)
- ^FAO (2006)."Food Security"(PDF).Policy Brief.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2017-05-18.
Further reading
[edit]- Ganle, John Kuumuori, Kwadwo Afriyie, and Alexander Yao Segbefia. "Microcredit: Empowerment and disempowerment of rural women in Ghana."World development66 (2015): 335-345.online
- Iwashima, Fumi. "Making and unmaking of housework in Rural Japan."Japanese Political Economy48.2-4 (2022): 107-128.online
- Hershatter, Gail.The gender of memory: Rural women and China’s collective past(Univ of California Press, 2011)online.
- Jain, Paras, et al. "Women education in rural India."International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities(IJSSH) 1.1 (2017): 21-26.online
- Oppenheim Mason, Karen. "The impact of women's social position on fertility in developing countries."Sociological forum2#4 (1987)online
- Sachs, Carolyn E.Gendered fields: Rural women, agriculture, and environment(Routledge, 2018) in USA.online.
- Weber, Bruce, et al. "A critical review of rural poverty literature: Is there truly a rural effect?."International regional science review28.4 (2005): 381-414.online
- Wyman, Andrea.Rural women teachers in the United States(1997)online