Women play a major role in the rural area, though it is often
scarcely appreciated compared to that of men. Despite having
an important place in rural labour, they are hardly ever acknowledged
as producers or held responsible for the management of natural
resources through their productive work.
In the same way, although they are the heads of family of a
fifth of rural homes and, in some regions, of a third of such
homes, they only own around 1% of the land.
Therefore, despite the legal progress made in the last few
years, the access to and control over land is still reduced
and limited for most rural women. This has intensified the difficulties
and limitations to access credit, technical assistance and participation,
all of them essential for development.
Even less value is given to daily reproductive tasks (fuel,
water and food supply for home consumption and for sale), which
are almost exclusively performed by them and carried out together
with productive activities. Since they are mainly the ones in
charge of housework, women play a vital role in rural home's
economy and they are their main guarantee of survival. But this
contribution, which systematically implies "double working
hours" usually remains unnoticed, regardless of the geographic
region. In this sense, a diagnosis made by the IICA and the
IDB (1995) shows that the amount of female population who is
economically active in the rural sector is up to five times
more than the figures registered in official surveys and censuses.
It is true that in low income countries with food deficits
this disparity is even more noticeable and it shows a clear
correspondence between women and poverty, which acquires dramatic
proportions in rural areas. Statistics show that almost 70%
of the economically active women work in the rural sector in
emerging regions and that female farmers are nowadays the majority
of the 1500 million people who live in absolute poverty. When
female farmers' access to means of production is reduced, the
number of people suffering from poverty and its direct consequences
(hunger, malnutrition and disease) rises inescapably. Furthermore,
the overload of work women suffer is reflected in a sharp rise
in child labour, with the resulting increase in school dropout,
together with the lack of access to technology as well as to
public bodies of social security and support to old age.
The fact that these issues are not taken into account in policies
has a strong consequence in the expected results: it can lead
to an increase in women's work load, it can badly affect their
health and, of course, it implies a complete waste of their
contributions and abilities. For that reason, it is utterly
necessary that a systematic gender perspective be adopted to
assess development processes. Indeed, it should be present at
the diagnosis stage of the original situation and throughout
the phases and modes of intervention in order to ensure effectiveness,
quality and sustainability in the actions undertaken.
With this conviction, the subsite introduces documents
and links to other web pages that contribute to inform about
the dimension and scope of women participation in rural development.
