#MeToo, but what about Rural Women?

Last weekend, I visited one of our partner farmers to monitor and help with the 2018 harvest. The family farm located on the beautiful mountain of Tarrazú, is run by an entrepreneurial woman named María*, and her supportive husband, José along with their three thoughtful daughters, Blanca, Natalia and Lucía. We spent a couple of hours on the hilly farm reaching for ripe cherries while balancing ourselves on the slippery walk across the farm. Amidst laughter, a surprise visit by a snake (thankfully, non poisonous) and more stories about animals and insects that we need to watch out for on the farm, I came to realize that we were mostly women. In the aisle of overgrown coffee trees were 5 women and 2 men. We were a team of three women that were visiting them; so without our presence, it would have been 2 women and 2 men on the same aisle. Yet again, the aisle above us were women with their children.

Monitoring the humidity of coffee on drying beds / Maria Fernanda Carrillo Chacon

Although I was aware of the fact that women play a pivotal role in coffee production, the reality again hit home as I stood back in the kitchen upon our return from the farm. The same women were now back in the kitchen preparing meals for everyone. The husband was out in the backyard to get the processing station ready to de-pulp the cherries off the beans after lunch. The daughters were done helping their mother with the preparation of lunch, and after lunch, went out again to get the station ready with their father.

With this family, there is a better distribution of work within the household. With certain physical limitation, Maria’s role lies in processing coffee and housework, but not much on the farm. Nevertheless, her responsibility is wide-ranging from processing the cherries after they have been picked from the farm, supervising the de-pulping and drying process to ensuring the quality of coffee and administering financial transactions for their family business.

The distribution of work is usually lopsided in many farms and families. There are many that I have visited where both women and men return from the farms together after a long day, and men head to the couch while women go into the kitchen. This is not to mention that their day starts an hour earlier than men’s to prepare breakfast for everyone and ends an hour after everyone, cleaning up and re-organizing the house. A day job for women includes the unpaid labor at home in addition to the less recognized work that they do on the farms.

Even for this specific family’s farm, the daughters’ role didn’t end just on the farm — they were back at the kitchen even upon their return from the farm.

It is an everyday observation and encounter that you get even in cities. Career women with a child are mostly referred to as working moms, while career men are referred to as career men; working dad — what an odd sounding word, right? (sarcasm intended). While the rise of #MeToo movement from courageous women around the globe has sparked a world-wide conversation about sexual predators, feminism and gender inequality, the conversation surrounding feminism within rural communities has been neglected to a certain degree. Many conversations that arose do not in fact, embrace the day-to-day lives of some of these women, because they do not consider themselves to be relevant in this conversation.

Nonetheless, it should be our responsibility to involve them in a conversation of feminist movement. Their stories may not make headlines, but we have enough data and studies to educate ourselves on the reality of rural women and their role in development. We need to be aware of why gender equality matters especially for economic development in rural communities.

Moving coffee in drying beds/ Maria Fernanda Carrillo Chacon

So, here are 7 reasons why we need to address feminism for rural women, and why their involvement plays a key role in the sustainable development of our society:

• Women make up almost half of the labor force in agriculture and 70% of all employed women work in agriculture.

While studies find it difficult to draw a clear line between women’s and men’s work in various cases due to the nature of agricultural work, there are studies suggesting that 60–70% of the work on the farm is done by women (Fabiyi et al., 2007; Fresco, 1998). Moreover, given that women tend to report less of their working hours as worked, and that their work mostly consists of unpaid work that is often neglected from the data, this number could be higher. Women, also are found more likely to be in part-time, seasonal or low-paying jobs even if they are in wage employment (FAO, 2011). Additionally, in many developing countries, almost 70% of the employed women work in agriculture. Hence, a larger portion of women in developing countries are involved in agricultural work than any other industry. Despite their involvement, less than 20% of the world’s landholders are women. Women barely represent 5% of all agricultural landholders in North Africa and West Asia. Female-owned lands tend to be half to two-thirds of the size of male-owned lands (UN Women, 2012).

• Rural women face greater hurdles accessing financial services, and 70% of the world’s poor are women

Women are found to experience greater hurdles (5–10 percentage point lower) to obtain fixed assets than men, and even when they do, the size is smaller than those available for men (World Bank, FAO, and IFAD, 2009). This halts them from advancing in society even if they are entrepreneurial and ambitious as they simply do not have the same playing field as their male counterparts. This explains why women make up 70% of the world’s poor (OECD, 2008). With limited economic opportunities, female-headed households are found to be more vulnerable and poorer than male-headed households (FAO, 2011).

• More rural women experience domestic violence and yet few seek services

A multi-country study by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that rural women were more likely to experience domestic violence than urban women, and they are less likely to report than urban women. In Peru, less than 5 percent of the rural domestic violence survivors (60 percent) sought help, compared to 16 percent of urban women (out of 49 percent).

The gender gap within society translates to women being poorer, not being recognized for their contribution and having more challenges than their male counterparts to address the issue to begin with. If the pure injustice of this reality has not convinced you yet on why rural women should be more actively involved in the conversation towards sustainable development and gender equality, the followings are reasons — statistically proven as you may like — why.

• Women’s income translates to improved well-being of the family

Studies carried out in Africa, Asia and Latin America routinely demonstrate that increasing women’s bargaining power in decision over household consumption led to more income allocated towards food, health, education, children’s clothing and nutrition (Thomas, 1997; Smith et al., 2003; FAO 2011). This has been backed by social safety-net programs in many countries that specifically targeted women (e.g. Oportunidades, formerly known as PROGRESA — Education, Health and Nutrition Program in Mexico).

• Reduced gender gap increases productivity and stimulates economic growth

Closing the gender gap is closely related to increase in productivity on the farms by 20–30%, which in turn can decrease hunger in the world by 12–17 percent (FAO, 2011). By simply allowing women to access same productive inputs as men, overall farm output will go up by 10–20 percent (Udry et al., 1995). Furthermore, elimination of gender gap leads to economic growth as overall size of quality labor force increases in a society (Dollar and Gatti, 1999; Klasen, 2002). The increase in female education impacts fertility, child mortality and the creation of human capital for upcoming generations (FAO, 2011). In India alone, the GDP could go up by 8% if the female/male ratio of labor force went up by 10%.

(http://www.oecd.org/dac/povertyreduction/50157530.pdf)

• Sustainable development is only possible with gender equality

In addition to long-lasting economic impact of women empowerment through improved human resources in households, and then reaching the society level, there is growing evidence that suggests greater female voice in administration and participation leads to better investment towards human development priorities (Chattopadhyay and Duflo, 2004). And we argue in point #5, allowing women to access and control agricultural assets and productive resources can increase food security and likelihood of sustainable livelihoods for our society (UN women, 2014).

• Gender Equality is the RIGHT thing for our society

Putting aside the quantitative arguments that elucidate economic and societal benefits of gender equality, it is paramount that we address gender issues and achieve gender equality because it is ethical and morally imperative that everyone enjoys their human rights and lead dignified lives. This is also precisely why gendered discussion is imperative in rural communities where it is often ignored, to invite them for inclusive feminism. Feminism should invite and embrace all people and their rights.

Bean Voyage is a non profit that provides training and market access to female coffee producers in Costa Rica so they can produce specialty coffee, earn better income and lead sustainable lives.

Written by: Sunghee Tark, Co-founder of Bean Voyage

*Names have been fictionalized for privacy.

Sources:

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2. Dollar, D. & Gatti, R. 1999, Gender inequality, income, and growth: are good times good for women? Policy Research Report on Gender and Development, Working Paper №1. Washington, DC, World Bank.
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