Women in Agriculture Worldwide: Key issues and practical approaches

Over the past two decades, existing documentation of women in the agricultural sector has surveyed topics such as agricultural restructuring and land reform, international trade agreements and food trade, land ownership and rural development and rural feminisms. Many studies have focused on either the high-income countries of the global North or the low-income countries of the global South. This separation suggests that the North has little to learn from the South, or that there is little shared commonality across the global dividing line. Fletcher and Kubik cross this political, economic, and ideological division by drawing together authors from 5 continents. They discuss the situation for women in agriculture in 13 countries worldwide, with two chapters that cover international contexts. The authors blur the boundaries between academic and organizational authors and their contributors include university-based researchers, gender experts, development consultants, and staff of agricultural research centers and international organizations (i.e., Oxfam, the United Nations World Food Program). The common thread connecting these diverse authors is an emphasis on practical and concrete solutions to address the challenges, such as lack of access to resources and infrastructure, lack of household decision-making power, and gender biases in policymaking and leadership, still faced by women in agriculture around the world. Ongoing issues in climate change will exacerbate many of these issues and several chapters also address environment and sustainability. This book is of great interest to readers in the areas of gender studies, agriculture, policy studies, environmental studies, development and international studies.

Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION - Context and Commonality: Women in Agriculture Worldwide - Amber J. Fletcher and Wendee Kubik PART I. Women’s Agricultural Work: Addressing Inequality and Invisibility AUSTRALIA - 1. Understanding the "Local" and "Global": Intersections Engendering Change for Women in Family Farming in Australia - Josephine Clarke and Margaret Alston CANADA - 2. Who’s Counting…. on the Farm? - June Corman and Wendee Kubik SOUTH AFRICA - 3. The Plight of Female Farm Workers on South African Farms - Maria-Stella Vettori INTERNATIONAL - 4. The System of Rice Intensification and its Impacts on Women: Reducing Pain, Discomfort, and Labor in Rice Farming While Enhancing Households’ Food Security? - Olivia Vent, Sabarmatee, and Norman Uphoff PART II. Gendering Sustainability and Food Security BANGLADESH AND LAOS - 5. Women and Food Security in South Asia - Margaret Alston and Kerri Whittenbury ZIMBABWE - 6. "Livelihoods in a Sack:" Gendered Dimensions of Sack Potato Farming Among Poor Households in Urban Zimbabwe - Manase Kudzai Chiweshe and Kudzai MacMillan Muzanago BURKINA FASO - 7. Diversifying the Garden: A Way to Ensure Food Security and Women’s Empowerment - Liette Vasseur INDIA - 8. Reviving and Strengthening Women’s Position and Agency in Ensuring Household Food Security: The Role of Home Gardens - Rengalakshmi Raj, E.D.I. Oliver King, B. Raghini, S. Abubaker Siddick, Venkatesan Gurumoorthy, and G. Kaleeswari PART III. Women’s Empowerment in Policy and Finance TANZANIA - 9. Improving Agricultural Land Tenure Security for Women: Assessing the FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines on Land Tenure - Andrea M. Collins TANZANIA - 10. Addressing Challenges of Rural Women: A Focus on Tanzania - Godbertha Kinyondo KENYA - 11. Can Sustainability be EnGENDERed through Informal Microfinance? A Case Study of the Kamba Merry-Go-Rounds in Ukambani, Eastern Province, Kenya - Carlyn James BRAZIL - 12. Participation of Women Farmers in Food Procurement Policies in Brazil - Andrea Moraes and Cecilia Rocha INTERNATIONAL - 13. The Rise of Institutional Food Procurement: A Tool for Empowering Women or Furthering the Status Quo? - Bryan Crawford-Garrett, Clare Mbizule, Karin Wachter, and Brian Sage PART IV. Working for Social Change MOROCCO - 14. From Empowerment to Transformative Leadership: Intersectional Analysis of Women Workers in the Strawberry Sector of Morocco - Julie Théroux-Séguin UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - 15. Building Power through Community: Women Creating and Theorizing Change - Angie Carter, Betty Wells, Ashley Hand, and Jessica Soulis CANADA - 16. Ploughing New Ground: A Feminist Interpretation of Youth Farm Internships in Ontario - Jan Kainer CONCLUSION - 17. What Works for Women in Agriculture? - Amber J. Fletcher