Gender in agriculture
Women's roles in farming, the gender gap in land and services, gender analysis frameworks, the WEAI, gender-responsive extension, and a yield gap sum.
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Women plant, weed, harvest, process and market a large share of the world's food, care for livestock, and do most unpaid household work, yet they usually own less land, have less access to credit, inputs, extension and markets, and have less say in decisions. These differences are not only unfair; they hold back productivity, nutrition and incomes. FAO's analyses suggest that closing gender gaps in agriculture would substantially raise food production and reduce hunger.
Gender analysis and gender-responsive agricultural development are now standard topics in extension, rural development and agricultural economics courses.
Sex and gender
Sex refers to biological differences. Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, responsibilities and power relations that societies assign to women and men, which vary between cultures and change over time. Gender analysis looks at how these roles shape who does what, who controls resources and who benefits.
Women's roles in agrifood systems
- Productive work: crops, livestock (especially small animals and dairy), fisheries processing, and wage labour on farms and in agro-processing.
- Reproductive and care work: cooking, fetching water and fuel, childcare and caring for the sick, mostly unpaid.
- Community work: participating in groups, ceremonies and local organisations.
Caroline Moser's triple roles framework highlights these three kinds of work. FAO estimated in its 2023 report The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems that agrifood systems are a more important source of livelihood for women than for men in many low- and middle-income countries.
The gender gap
Women farmers typically have less:
- land, and less secure land rights, often because of inheritance customs and laws;
- credit, since they lack collateral;
- inputs, such as improved seed and fertiliser;
- extension and training, which often targets the "head of household";
- labour, because their time is stretched by care work;
- market access, mobility and membership of producer organisations;
- technology, including mobile phones and the internet.
Studies across many countries find that plots managed by women often yield less than men's plots, mostly because of these differences in resources, not differences in ability. When women have equal access, their productivity is similar.
Gender also matters for nutrition: studies in many countries link women's control over income and food decisions to better child diets and health, so programmes that raise women's incomes and voice often improve family nutrition as well as farm output.
Gender analysis tools
- Harvard Analytical Framework: an activity profile (who does what), an access and control profile (who has access to and control over resources and benefits), and an analysis of influencing factors.
- Moser framework: triple roles, and practical gender needs (immediate needs within existing roles, such as water close to home) versus strategic gender interests (changing unequal power, such as land rights or decision-making).
- Gender-disaggregated data: collecting information separately for women and men.
- Daily activity clocks and seasonal calendars by gender, part of participatory appraisal.
Measuring empowerment: the WEAI
The Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), launched in 2012 by IFPRI, the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and USAID's Feed the Future, measures empowerment in five domains.
Women are considered empowered if they reach adequacy in a set share of indicators; the index also compares women's empowerment with men's in the same household.
Gender-responsive agricultural development
- Secure land rights for women through law reform, joint titling and registration.
- Gender-responsive extension: women extension workers, meetings at suitable times and places, childcare at trainings, content on crops and animals women manage, and using groups and phones women can access.
- Labour- and time-saving technologies: water points, improved stoves, small machines for planting, weeding and processing.
- Financial inclusion: group lending, savings groups and mobile money.
- Women's groups and leadership in cooperatives and producer organisations.
- Gender-transformative approaches that address norms and power relations, involving men and communities, not only women.
How much would closing the yield gap add?
In a district, women manage 40 per cent of the cropland and men 60 per cent. Average maize yields are 1.5 t/ha on men's plots and 1.2 t/ha on women's plots, a gender gap of (1.5 − 1.2) ÷ 1.5 = 20 per cent.
- Current average yield = 0.6 × 1.5 + 0.4 × 1.2 = 0.90 + 0.48 = 1.38 t/ha.
- If women's plots reached 1.5 t/ha with equal access to inputs, labour and advice: average = 1.50 t/ha.
- Increase in total output = (1.50 − 1.38) ÷ 1.38 ≈ 8.7 per cent.
On 100,000 ha, that is 12,000 t more maize a year, achieved without any new technology, only by giving women the same resources as men.
Key points
- Gender refers to socially constructed roles and power relations, not biological sex.
- Women have productive, reproductive and community roles (Moser's triple roles) and do most unpaid care work.
- The gender gap lies in land, credit, inputs, extension, labour, markets and technology; productivity gaps largely reflect these.
- Tools: Harvard framework (activity, access and control profiles), Moser framework (practical and strategic needs), gender-disaggregated data.
- The WEAI measures empowerment in production, resources, income, leadership and time.
- Gender-responsive and gender-transformative programmes address access and underlying norms.
What the exams ask
- School-leaving and entrance papers: role of women in agriculture and constraints they face.
- Degree and research-fellowship entrances: gender concepts, analysis frameworks, practical and strategic needs, the WEAI, and gender-responsive extension.
- Professional and policy examinations: gender mainstreaming in programmes, gender budgeting, land rights, and measuring empowerment.
Described in general terms: the kind of examination, not a past paper. Laisha never reproduces exam questions.
Questions people ask
Why focus on women rather than all farmers?
Because women face specific barriers that general programmes often miss. Programmes that do not consider gender can widen gaps, for example by training only men in a crop women grow.
Do women farmers need different technologies?
Often they need the same technologies made accessible: suitable sizes and weights, affordable, available near home, and introduced at times and places women can attend. Time-saving tools are especially valuable.
What does gender-transformative mean?
Approaches that aim to change the underlying norms and power relations that create inequality, such as who decides on household spending, rather than only working around them.
Sources
- FAO. The State of Food and Agriculture 2010–11: Women in Agriculture: Closing the Gender Gap for Development. FAO, Rome, 2011.
- FAO. The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems. FAO, Rome, 2023.
- Alkire, S. et al. "The Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index." World Development 52, 71–91 (2013).
- Moser, C. O. N. Gender Planning and Development: Theory, Practice and Training. Routledge, 1993.
- Quisumbing, A. R. et al. (eds) Gender in Agriculture: Closing the Knowledge Gap. Springer and FAO, 2014.
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