Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Bridging the Gender Divide in
Rural Communities
One of the enduring obstacles for rural development projects in the global
South has been the lack of recognition of the essential role played by
women in contributing to agricultural production, livelihoods and resource
management - a situation that Ester Boserup first identified back in 1970
(Boserup, 1970; Momsen, 2004; Jacobs, 2008). Although women in
sub-Saharan Africa produce and market approximately three-quarters of
domestic food (Robinson, 2004), women consistently have less access to
the resources and opportunities they need to be more productive (see
Chapter 4.1). A recent report by the FAO (Food and Agriculture
Organization, 2010) states that women comprise 43 per cent of agricul-
tural labour in the global South, ranging from 20 per cent in Latin America
to 50 per cent in East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Yet women operate
smaller farms, on average one-half to two-thirds the size of male farms,
keep less livestock, and endure a greater workload that includes a higher
burden of less productive activities such as fetching water and firewood.
Women may lack access to resources due to the following factors:
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Less access to education, information, credit and finance
•
Less likely to purchase fertilizers, new seeds and equipment
•
More likely to be in insecure, part-time and low-paid jobs in the
informal sector
•
Receive lower wages for the same work as men
•
Lack legal rights to land ownership and inheritance.
The report also states that if women had the same resources as men they
could increase their yields by 20-30 per cent, raising agricultural produc-
tion by 2.5 to 4 per cent in the global South and reducing the world's
hungry population by 12-17 per cent. Initiatives to help address the gen-
der gap include micro-credit, more equitable land rights and legal inherit-
ance, and policies that mainstream social justice and gender equity. For
example, land reform programmes have been increasingly undermined by
structural gender discrimination in the enforcement of women's land
rights, including the failure legally to recognize women as 'household
heads' or as landowners, a situation that has further disadvantaged
female smallholders (Jacobs, 2009). Research has also focused on the gen-
dering of intra-household assets and the effect on intergenerational
poverty (Kabeer, 1994; Chant, 2007a). Solutions to widespread rural
