Women in agriculture: Four myths

Abstract

Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG) on gender equality and women’s rights and at least 11 of the 17 SDGs require indicators related to gender dynamics. Despite the need for reliable indicators, stylized facts on women, agriculture, and the environment persist. This paper analyzes four gender myths: 1) 70% of the world’s poor are women; 2) Women produce 60 to 80% of the world’s food; 3) Women own 1% of the world’s land; and 4) Women are better stewards of the environment. After reviewing the conceptual and empirical literature, the paper presents the kernel of truth underlying each myth, questions its underlying assumptions and implications, and examines how it hinders us from developing effective food security policies.

What about Gender in Climate Change? Twelve Feminist Lessons from Development

“…Gendered norms, rules and values shape women's and men's capacities, incentives and preferences for how to access, use and control resources in small-scale farming [118]. Knowledge about the environment can be gendered, as can attitudes and abilities that influence or even determine how small-scale farmers use and manage natural resources and how they approach new farming techniques and practices [98,115].…”

“…Women are disadvantaged in many land inheritance systems where legal rights in combination with gender norms hinder them from both getting and keeping land. In areas that recognize both customary and statutory law it is especially hard to secure and enforce women's land rights [118]. In case of legal pluralism both family law and land law need to be consulted and in addition, women need to not only be aware of their rights but also have the capacity to challenge social norms that limit those rights [118].…”

“…In areas that recognize both customary and statutory law it is especially hard to secure and enforce women's land rights [118]. In case of legal pluralism both family law and land law need to be consulted and in addition, women need to not only be aware of their rights but also have the capacity to challenge social norms that limit those rights [118]. According to some observers, such limited access and such restricted rights to essential resources make women particularly exposed and vulnerable to climate change [83], especially if crop failure, fuel shortage or water scarcity will affect their capacity to discharge what is deemed to be their food provision responsibility in relation to children and other family [129].…”

“…Yet, recent debates and research on gender in environment and climate change offer more nuanced insights on this showing that women do not necessarily possess any essential orientation towards nature or resource conservation [138][139][140]. A closer study of gendered variability within and between settings may therefore help identify influential aspects and dimensions that go beyond essentialism [118].…”

Factors Affecting the Perceptions of Small-Scale Organic Farmers in South Africa: An OLS Approach

“…This result agreed with the findings by Nhemachena & Hassan (2007) which reported that female-headed households are more likely to adopt several approaches of organic practices than male-headed households. In addition, the research conducted by Palacios-Lopez et al (2017) on women and agricultural productivity as cited by Doss et al (2017) reported that women are more greatly involved in all aspects of agricultural productivity, accounting for about 40 percent of their involvement in agricultural productivity. Similarly, Doss (2014) concluded that women contributed to about60-80% of the food that is being produced in developing countries.…”