Gender-equitable rural employment
Gender is a key determinant of access to productive resources. Gender is also the basis for the division of labour within the household, the social value attributed to different types of work, and bargaining power, making it a key determinant of decent work outcomes. Although gender inequality varies considerably between different regions and sectors, there is evidence that globally women benefit less from rural employment, whether self- or wage employment, than men do. Women face inequalities in all the pillars of decent work: employment creation/enterprise development, social protection, standards and rights at work, and governance and social dialogue.
Gender inequalities are widespread in rural labour markets, where women and men often work in different combinations of employment, for example, as self-employed farmers, temporary waged workers, employers, and as unpaid family workers. Women often work in the lowest paid and most precarious forms of employment, and experience the effects of the so-called “sticky floor”, on the bottom rungs of their occupations. Furthermore, rural women continue to be affected by the invisibility of their work related to the care economy. They are heavily engaged in domestic and reproductive tasks, which are crucial to the maintenance of households, families, kin groups and communities, but which nevertheless are regarded as an extension of household duties and hence are for the most part economically hidden. The transfer of many of these care burdens onto girls/daughters tends to perpetuate cycles of impoverishment and gender disadvantage.
Vulnerable employment is a newly defined measure of persons who are less likely to have formal work arrangements or access to benefits or social protection programmes, and are therefore more exposed to economic cycles (ILO, 2008). Vulnerability is often associated with gender pay gaps, low representation, limited security, hazards and overall poverty. Over the last decade, in all regions, women and men's employment conditions in rural labour markets has improved. An example of this improvement has been the shift from being a contributor to family workers to becoming waged workers or employers. A large body of literature has debated the “feminization” of rural labour markets, as war, sickness, death from HIV/AIDS and male out-migration have increased the proportion of women working in agriculture. As men’s participation in agriculture declines, the role of women in agricultural production becomes ever more dominant.
The organization and unionization of rural people is weak in general, but gender inequalities are also reflected in workers’ and producers’ representation, especially in organized labour institutions, such as trade unions and traditional forms of collective action, where women and women’s interests are largely underrepresented.
Gender-equitable employment is a priority for FAO and ILO, because it is a key dimension of their joint efforts to promote decent work. FAO and ILO in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), organized a technical expert meeting on Gaps, Trends and Current Research in Gender Dimensions of Agricultural and Rural Employment: Differentiated Pathways out of Poverty, in Rome from 31 March to 2 April 2009. The meeting set out to analyse trends and issues, identify knowledge gaps, and compile innovative gender-sensitive policy measures and good practices to strengthen rural labour markets for women and men.
Contacts
FAO Focal Point: Peter Wobst, ESWD (Peter.Wobst@fao.org)
ILO Focal Point: Susan Maybud, GENDER (maybud@ilo.org)
