1. Women and Work

2. Women and Economic Systems
The role of women within economic systems is influenced by:
Gender Role Ideology
Subsistence Strategies and Techniques
Global Economic Factors

3. Gender Role Ideology
Beliefs about the appropriateness of behaviors and roles for males and for females.
Deeply embedded in consciousness
Considered the “natural” way in which things should be done
Well integrated within all cultural systems, so that disruption of roles interferes with many aspects of daily life

4. Gender and Subsistence
There are four general subsistence strategies:
1. Hunting and Gathering
2. Pastoralism
3. Horticulture
4. Agriculture

5. Hunting and Gathering All plants to all animals
Women provide about 80% of food in most H & G societies.
Men provide high status food (meat)
Egalitarian societies generally and by gender
Small groups (about 30 individuals)
Mobile
Generalized Reciprocity is the main distribution mode
No surplus accumulated

6. Pastoralism Dependence on herd animals for subsistence
Herds are owned by men (husbands and sons)
Women are part of the labor force that care for baby animals and milk the herds + household and child work
Women produce children who also become part of the labor force
Usually patrilineal and patriarchial
Men frequently have multiple wives
Groups in the 100’s
Generalized and balanced reciprocity are the major distribution modes
Surplus resides in the living herd

7. Horticulture Farming with only hand tools
Various sexual division of labor patterns
Production of crops
Marketing of crops
Monogamous or polygynous
Villages or dispersed homesteads
Reciprocity plus market system distribution
Surplus production varies

8. Agriculture
Farming with more than hand tools (plow, tractor, draught animals, terracing, irrigation)
Males control land and property
Females do housework and produce children as labor force
Monogamous or polygynous
Villages to cities
Market system form of distribution
Large surpluses produced
O = Birth to 2
A = 2-3
P = 3-5
L = 5-12

9. Globalization Factors
Exhaustion of land
War
Migration of men for wage labor
Result in men being absent or unable to work in traditional roles/jobs
O = Birth to 2
A = 2-3
P = 3-5
L = 5-12

10. Women in Farming
Rural women in particular are responsible for half of the world's food production and produce between 60 and 80 percent of the food in most developing countries.
In Southeast Asia, women provide up to 90 percent of the labor for rice cultivation.
Women in rural Africa produce, process, and store up to 80 percent of the food.
In sub-Saharan Africa, women produce up to 80 percent of basic foodstuffs both for household consumption and for sale.
Fifty percent of Third World women plough and level land
Seventy percent Third World women are involved in planting, tilling and harvesting.
Women perform from 25 to 45 percent of agricultural field tasks in Colombia and Peru.
Women constitute 53 percent of the agricultural labor in Egypt.
O = Birth to 2
A = 2-3
P = 3-5
L = 5-12

11. Blocks to Women’s Participation in Agricultural Policy and Decision-Making
Farmers are still generally perceived as 'male' by policy-makers, development planners and agricultural service deliverers.
Legal systems do not recognize women as having equal property rights as men.
Most development monies and grants go to men.

12. Consequences of Blocks
Access to land - Inheritance and land tenure laws limit women's ownership and use of land.
Access to credit - Short- and long-term credit is needed to pay for inputs and hired labor. Women lack property and land rights, and therefore collateral.
Access to agricultural inputs - Improved seeds, fertilizers and pesticides are a vital means of enhancing production. Women usually lack access to cash or to government subsidized programs.

13. Consequences of Blocks (2)
Access to extension and training - Agricultural extension programs inform farmers about new technologies and plant varieties. Few extension services are targeted at rural women, few of the world's extension agents are women and most of the extension services focus on commercial rather than subsistence crops - the primary concern of women.
Access to education - Prevailing attitudes about women's social, political and cultural rights severely limit girls' access to education throughout the developing world.
Access to technology - Labor-saving technologies are important means of increasing production and improving people's quality of life. But the needs and priorities of women are rarely considered in the research and development of agricultural technology.

14. Consequences of Blocks (3)
Access to rural organizations - Agricultural cooperatives and farmers' organizations help members obtain resources and represent members' interests before government. But a common prerequisite for membership of these rural organizations is, very often, 'head of household status' or land ownership, which applies solely to men.
Access to services - Services such as transport and market facilities help farmers expand their income-generating activities. Although women have a role in the trading of goods and the food they produce, illiteracy and lack of legal rights prevent them from joining formal service institutions.

15. Examples of Some Consequences of Blocks
Fewer than 10 percent of women farmers in India, Nepal and Thailand own land.
An analysis of credit schemes in five African countries found that women received less than 10 percent of the credit awarded to male smallholders.
Only 15 percent of the world's agricultural extension agents are women.

16. Development Paradox
Men have historically received most or all developmental aid and funding, and it has been expected that the effects of their improved economic status will spread to women and children.
The evidence shows that development aid and funding given to women has a significantly larger and more immediate impact on the lives of men, women and children.

17. Women and Entrepreneurship
Small and medium-scale enterprises are one important form of economic development
Women are increasingly taking part in this economic segment in developing nations
Obstacles to women’s participation include:
Lack of managerial, technical or marketing skills
Lack of access to appropriate technology for safe production of goods and services
Lack of access to loans and credit with which to begin a business

18. Pottery in Bolivia Traditionally Men make the pots
Women provide support services
Collecting clay and firewood with donkeys
Decorating the pots with glazes made from car batteries
Taking them to market
Development efforts included
Introducing gas kilns
Trucks replaced donkeys for hauling clay
Machine substituted for manual crushing of clay
Alternative glazes were introduced
Introducing new designs
Training women in marketing skills

19. Pottery in Bolivia (2) What did NOT change:
Men continued to be the ones who made the pots.
(Gender Ideology)
Women continued to do the support work and marketing
What DID change:
Women’s work was made easier and more efficient
The variety of styles and designs of the pottery increased
Women opened a retail shop in a neighboring city to sell their wares
Water, gas and electricity that were installed to improve the business also improved households
The population of this village has remained stable, while that of neighboring villages has declined through heavy migration.

20. Textiles in Kenya Traditionally
Women sewed from home in the informal economic sector
Development efforts included
Training for technical and business skills
Designing garments
Marketing
Accounting
Sewing machine maintenance and repair
Open up access to credit for beginning a new business
Providing new tools and machinery necessary to produce competitive garments in terms of quality and price
Helping to open up export markets for the products

21. Shea Butter in Guinea Traditionally
Women alone produce beurre (Shea Butter)
Cultivate the plants
Collect the nuts
Hand crush the nuts with a stone, removing the shells
Frequently takes up to 10 hours a day to produce
Used as a subsistence food item
Development efforts included
Introducing hand-operated crushing/pressing machines
Provided credit opportunities
Provided literacy training
Provided accounting and administrative skills for dealing with banks, etc.
Reduced production time from 10 to 2 hours
Allows a surplus production that can be used for income in addition to subsistence.

22. Global Economic Factors
Economically motivated migration
Leaves women behind to support families OR
Causes women to be away from their families for years at a time.
Global Trade Openness
Puts women in competition with industries in other countries
Warfare
Leaves women behind to support their families