“Farmers are the only indispensable people on the face of the earth." - Li Zhaoxing, Ambassador, China

- Michigan - United States - Worldwide

Who Are Women in Agriculture?

Worldwide

Agriculture is a major component of rural incomes, especially in developing nations. Water, land, livestock, crops, and knowledge are essential for the livelihoods of most of the world's rural families. Access to, control over, and management of these resources determines which activities are pursued, which goods may be produced, and whether the lives of rural families are enhanced or diminished. Gender determines who has access to these resources and what kind of access they have. Although women work in the fields, the homes, outside of the farm, and at the markets, their male counterparts often dictate decisions over the household and its economy.

According to the 2001 Canadian Census of Agriculture, Canadian women solely operate 5% of the farms, a jump from the 3.9 % that were solely operated by women a decade ago. Both women and men operated 85% of farms. Despite this slight increase, the number of women under age 35 that own and operate farms is half than what it was in 1991. The number of women farm operators 55 years and older has increased. This means that the women working on the farms are getting older, without a younger group of women to take their place. In other words, the number of women entering the farming world is declining. Some of the farms operated by both women and men in Canada are small farms, with sales under $50,000. In comparison, it was estimated that 80% of the farms operated only by women had sales under $50,000.

According to the census, Canadian women tend to work fewer hours on the farm than men while working about the same number of hours off the farm. However, the census does not calculate the hours of work women put in on the farm that is considered "unpaid labor". This unpaid family labor - taking care of children, making meals, doing housework - all take time and are a necessary part of the operation of a farm and family. However, there is no economic value calculated for this time. According to Karen Krug, the devaluation of women and the work that they do leads to their unequal participation in farming organization. This limits their influence on policy making which oftentimes leads to unjust legislation and restrictions on women's ownership and control over necessary resources. This keeps women within a second class, with less economic security and more vulnerability to the effects of poverty. Karen Krug's article, "Canadian Rural Women Reconstructing Agriculture," discusses strategies of Canadian women for improving their own welfare with subsistence agriculture, and how these strategies in turn improve the well-being of a community.

Much of the agricultural work done by women of the developing world is subsistence agriculture. While their husbands often go to the cities or large-scale farms to find work, women are often left to produce and raise food for their children. Agriculture, especially subsistence agriculture, is a way of survival for many women. Their work, however, is often unrecognized. Despite a growing recognition of women's work and contributions to agriculture, women continue to have unequal access to necessities such as land, water, credit, supportive networks, and capital.

The United Nations declared a decade for women between 1970 and 1980. Despite development efforts during this decade, Sen and Grown (1987) found that the conditions in which women live and work did not improve. Since these findings surfaced in the late 1980s, researchers have re-focused on the question of why and found that there were several underlying structures that prevent women from gaining equal social status to men. The following researchers have contributed to understanding women's role in agriculture, how gender discrimination impedes access to necessary resources, and how women demand social change.

Women's Work in Agriculture, Globalization, and Economics

Marilyn Waring is a feminist economist, a former member of the New Zealand Parliament, and a farmer. In her documentary film, Who's Counting?, Waring discusses the invisibility of women's work, stressing how women's work remains unvalued, underpaid, and unrecognized. In Who's Counting? Waring discusses the United Nation's definition of productivity and work. The United Nations System of National Accounts states, "Subsistence producers and the consumption of their own produce by non-primary producers is of little or no importance." Waring tells us what this language means: that the work of non-primary producers (such as housewives) and much of the work that women do is considered unimportant in the economic world. Waring discusses how women are often invisible in the market economy because much of what they produce does not go through the market. The value of childcare and household work is not included in national accounts. Waring further describes the language of economics and how it affects women's work and status. Mariyn Waring's documentary is humorous and poignant, and well worth watching.

Christa Wichterich is a journalist and author of The Globalized Woman. In The Globalized Woman, Wichterich critiques how the globalization of agriculture negatively affects women's lives, specifically how globalized agriculture industries affect the means of survival for women. In her chapter entitled "Means of Living: Land for Men, Work for Women," Wichterich describes women agriculturalists and land ownership in Kenya. As in many other places in the world, women in Kenya do not have access to resources such as machines, land, credit, and advice that are necessary to be as productive as men. A study for the International Food Policy Research Institute points out, "If women were given the same resources as men, developing countries would see significant increases in agricultural productivity." (70) Despite the fact that women do not own the land, they are still responsible for most of the labor done on the land. It is estimated that "75% of all agricultural labour in Africa is performed by women." (70) Men are doing less of the labor on the land that they own because they are seeking seasonal employment in cities. The result is a "feminization of agriculture," where women are now responsible for producing market produce and tending the cattle, in addition to producing food for consumption by the family. (70) Yet because the husbands own the soil and the land, the income the women earn from their hard work is allocated to the men. This has left Kenyan women in a situation with few options for improvement. The remainder of the chapter discusses the expansion of the prawn and shrimp industry in South Asia, the agricultural trade market of India and the Philippines, the McDonaldization of South Asian food and culture, and issues of intellectual property ownership.

Women and Property

Women all over the world continue to struggle for their rights to own and inherit property. Human Rights Watch published a report on women farmers in Kenya and their property rights, entitled "Double Standards: Women's Property Rights Violations in Kenya." Human Rights Watch details the disastrous effects of traditional and governmental institutions that deny women's rights to own property in Kenya.

Bina Agarwal is a professor of economics at the Institute of Economic Growth at the University of New Delhi, India. She has written about women in relation to property rights, structural adjustment, rural development, and the environment. She is the author of the award-winning "A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia," which offers an analysis of gender and property throughout South Asia. Agarwal argues that the most important economic factor affecting women is the gender gap in command over property. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including field research, the author addresses the reason for this imbalance, and asks how the barriers to ownership can be overcome. The book offers original insights into the current theoretical and policy debates on land reform and women's status.

International Agriculture Development, Intensive Monoculture, and Health

The Green Revolution, developed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug, was a development initiative that sought to improve yields of rice, wheat, and maize with genetically modified seeds, intensive monoculture requiring intensive irrigation, and the use of pesticides and fertilizers. Vandana Shiva has written critically and extensively about the effects of the Green Revolution in India and South Asia, and much of her work focuses on how the Green Revolution has affected women and their families. Shiva discusses the Green Revolution and its harmful effects on biodiversity in her article, "World in a Grain of Rice," originally published in the December 2000 edition of The Ecologist. For a listing of Shiva's articles and commentaries from Z Magazine, click here. Shiva also is the director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE). Shiva, a long-time environmental activist, established RFSTE to work on biodiversity conservation and protecting people's rights from threats to their livelihoods and environment by centralized systems of monoculture in forestry, agriculture, and fisheries. The Foundation, along with Navdanya, have created a Diverse Women for Diversity program that believes in non-violent resistance to globalization, genetic engineering, and patents on life forms.

The intensive pesticide use that characterizes many of the international agricultural development efforts that target women has been highly criticized. In his article, "Pesticides and Reproduction - Women Farmers in Indonesia," Andrew Watterson states, "The occupational health issues which women face have often been either ignored or downplayed by scientists and legislators. This partly reflects the lack of research or selective research on women's health." The article details the use of pesticides in Indonesia, identifies effects on women's reproductive health, and offers a summary of the epidemiological studies about women and pesticide use. The Pesticides News is part of the Pesticide Action Network UK.

The International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC) takes an educational approach to providing local agricultural alternatives to the current globalized system. Through their educational resources, campaigning, and networking, the organization addresses the problems of a globalized system of agriculture. Included is a listing of materials the Society has available, including an extensive list of online articles by the organization's founder, Helena Norberg-Hodge. According to the website, "Throughout the world, agriculture is in crisis. Farmers are going bankrupt in record numbers, and the rural communities of which they are an integral part are being drained of life. Meanwhile, international trade in food is booming. Every year, the distance between producers and consumers rises, to the point where the average American meal has now traveled more than 1,500 miles before it arrives on the dinner table. These two trends are directly linked. The globalization of the food economy, while enriching a small number of giant 'agribusinesses,' is undermining the welfare of everyone else. What's more, it is a major contributor to increasing CO2 emissions, and therefore to climate change. We urgently need to move in precisely the opposite direction - towards shortening the links between farmers and consumers. Such a shift would bring back diversity to land that has been all but destroyed by chemical-intensive monocropping, provide much-needed jobs at a local level, and help to rebuild community. Moreover, it would allow farmers to make a decent living while giving consumers access to healthy, fresh food at affordable prices."

Microcredit Projects

Microcredit programs offer women small loans for small-scale, income-generating projects in agriculture, textiles, and other fields. Microcredit programs are often funded by non-governmental institutions and are often managed by local women themselves. The Grameen Bank is a well-known example of a microcredit program. The Grameen Bank has given loans to 3.7 million people in Bangladesh. Ninety-six percent of these borrowers are women. Their purpose is to end the exploitation of poor women and men by money lenders and to promote and create opportunities for self-employment. This Website contains information such as the history of the Grameen Bank, objectives of the bank, an explanation of the credit delivery system, and monthly reports on the activities of the Grameen Bank.

Rebuilding Economies through Agriculture

During the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, over 800,000 people were massacred and 2 million people sought refuge in neighboring countries. The genocide was devastating for the people of Rwanda, who lost their families, friends, and neighbors. Many men were killed, leaving the women to provide for their children. A primary cash crop in Rwanda before and after the genocide was coffee. However, as more and more countries produced coffee for export, the international market for coffee plummeted. The combination of the genocide and the drop in coffee demand was devastating for Rwanda's economy. In response to these events, several American and Rwandan Universities, including Michigan State University, collaborated to form the Partnerships to Enhance Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages (PEARL) program. The PEARL program went into the communities most affected by these events and and established specialty coffee cooperatives. The program works with rural communities across Rwanda to generate income through agricultural product development and market linkages. The PEARL project offers various support programs for women coffee farmers, including credit and extension programs, that enable women to grow their own specialty coffees and to sell them on an international market for a fair price.

Agencies Involving Women and Agriculture Worldwide

United Nations Organizations

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations leads international efforts to defeat hunger. FAO works as a neutral forum for nations to meet and negotiate, while also serving as a source of information for countries wanting to improve agriculture, forestry, and fisheries practices and ensure good nutrition for all. FAO has a department that deals specifically with international agriculture, found at the FAO Agriculture 21 Web page. FAO also has created a Gender and Food Security department. The department examines the relationships between gender and food security through the categories of agriculture; education, extension, and communication; population; rural economics; fisheries; nutrition; forestry; environment; and division of labor. FAO's Plan of Action for Women in Development (1996-2001) ensures that gender concerns and women participants are integrated in all relevant FAO projects and activities. It aims to give women equal access to and control of land and other productive resources, increase their participation in decision- and policy-making, reduce their workloads, and enhance their opportunities for paid employment and income.

The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programs and strategies that promote women's human rights, political participation, and economic security in many areas, including agriculture.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) helps men and women around the world in their family choices, including the ability to live a sustainable lifestyle. Their focus is mainly on reproductive issues; however, in their mission to achieve sustained and sustainable social and economic development to meet human needs, ensure wellbeing, and protect the natural resources on which all life depends, women and agriculture play an important role.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) identifies gender equality, along with development, as a cross-cutting issue of the strategic objectives of its global agenda. Their mission is to mainstream gender concerns in all its policies and programs in an attempt to establish gender equality. Their Gender Equality Tool page discusses their strategies.

WomenWatch is a central gateway to information and resources on the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women throughout the United Nations system and other organizations.

The World Bank Group has established gender equality as a key component to stimulating economic growth and alleviating poverty. The Bank has an Operational Policy that spells out its responsibilities in this area, and a strategy to implement this policy. The Bank's Website provides information on Bank policy, strategy, and implementation, as well as tools useful for integrating gender issues into analytical work, development operations, and capacity building.

The United Nations Platform for Action Committee (UNPAC) created the Women and the Economy project because "there are considerable differences in women's and men's access to and opportunities to exert power over economic structures in their societies." To tackle this problem, the project promotes women's literacy worldwide. The Globalization and Food section of the project discusses women's roles in the industry of food and the global food chain.

Other Links

March 8 is International Women's Day. The theme for 2005 was"Gender Equality Beyond 2005: Building a More Secure Future." The theme reflects the close relationship between gender equality, security, and development and underlines the importance of pursuing gender equality to build a more secure and sustainable future. The World Health Organization has adapted this theme to reflect the connection between gender equality and health.

The Institute of International Agriculture at Michigan State University serves to promote, facilitate, expedite, and coordinate international development programs of the university. Their programs include an MSU-US/China Rural Development Training Program, short courses, and information on topics such as biotechnology and trade.

The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) examines the lives of women worldwide and their role in development. One of the many focuses the center has is on nutrition and food security, with research done in the areas of hunger and malnutrition, as well as agriculture, nutrition, and gender linkages.

The International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) was established in 1946 to secure the fullest cooperation between organizations of agricultural producers in meeting the optimum nutritional and consumptive requirements of the peoples of the world. It works to improve the economic and social status of all who live by and on the land. It serves as the body that represents, groups, and networks international farming organizations. The January 2004 issue of their newsletter focuses on women in agriculture in the US and worldwide. The newsletter examines the needs of women in agriculture, as their situation differs drastically from men in agriculture. Included is a section offering recommendations for increasing women's status in the agricultural sphere, such as providing financial resources to those in agriculture, making sustainable development a goal, increasing knowledge and training, and increasing the representation of women in agriculture in farming organizations.

Information is available on women's access to land worldwide at the International Land Coalition Website, which works to provide rural poor people around the world with land ownership and other resources.

"Women in Agriculture and Rural Life: An International Bibliography," compiled by the USDA, is an extensive bibliography devoted to information on women in agriculture worldwide. This Website offers information on women and land issues Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, North America, and South America (including the Caribbean and Central America).

Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN) is a global network of professional women engaged in agriculture and natural resource management who are committed to organizational change for gender equality and environmentally sustainable development. A fundamental principle of the WOCAN network is that organizations themselves need to become gender sensitive in order to promote sustainable development for rural communities. The objective of WOCAN is to address three major gaps that persist with regards to sustainable and rural development processes: 1) policies regarding gender within the natural resource management sectors; 2) roles of professional women in implementing policies for rural women's empowerment and gender equality within these sectors; and 3) organizational barriers that obstruct women from realizing positions of leadership and influence to take on such roles.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is devoted to enabling the rural poor to overcome poverty. Included in this mission is an awareness of the importance of gender in the equation. One of IFAD's main concerns is the evolving approaches to gender and household food security. Included on the Website is information on various policies and strategies, IFAD's regional programs, tools, and guidelines targeted toward women and food security internationally.

The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) is an international membership organization connecting, informing, and mobilizing people and organizations committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable development, and women's human rights. The thematic areas discussed on the Website include feminist movements and organizations, gender equality and new technologies, women's rights and economic change, young women and leadership, and women's human rights.

References

Agarwal, Bina. 1994. A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Oct/Nov 1995. “FAO Plan of Action for Women in Development.”

International Federation of Agricultural Producers. January 2004. “Special Issue: Women Farmers.” World Farmer: 1-6.

Krug, Karen. “Canadian Rural Women Reconstructing Agriculture.”

Sen, G.; Grown, C. 1987. Development, crisis and
alternative visions: Third World women’s perspectives. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Shiva, Vandana. 2000/2001. “World in a Grain of Rice.” The Ecologist.

United Nations Statistics Division. 1993. System of National Accounts.

United States Department of Agriculture. June/July 1998. “Women in Agriculture and Rural Life: An International Bibliography.”

Walsh, Janet. 2004. “Double Standards: Women’s Property Rights Violations in Kenya,” edited by Joanne Csete, et al. New York: Human Rights Watch.

Waring, Marylin. 1996. Who’s Counting? Canada: The National Film Board of Canada.

Watterson, Andrew. June 1999. "Pesticides and Reproduction - Women Farmers in Indonesia." Pesticide News 44: 12-14.

Wichterich, Christa. 2000. The Globalized Woman: Reports from a Future of Inequality. London: Zed Books.