Guantanamo.- The term “rural women” refers to women living in rural areas, performing productive tasks related to the countryside. Behind this label lies a quarter of the world’s population.
Recent celebrations for World Rural Women’s Day have concluded, but these lines are written precisely so that the importance of this demographic is not highlighted only on a commemorative date.
Global Pillars of Food Security
The work of these women, who constitute “43% of the agricultural labor force globally,” provides half of the planet’s food sustenance. Hence, their role is key to improving food security and contributing to the fight against poverty. The UN estimates that if they had the same access to productive resources as men, “agricultural yields could increase by 20 to 30 percent, which would feed 100 to 150 million more people.”
Furthermore, women are often the ones leading the fight against climate change by deploying sustainable agricultural practices, resilience strategies in their communities, and generating reforestation and recovery initiatives. Yet, contradictorily, these same women are among the most affected by the effects of climate change.
The Greatest Contributors with the Least Access
Among the paradoxes surrounding rural women is that, despite their massive productive and food contributions, “less than 15% of them are landowners.” This and other disparities speak to the persistent, strong gender inequalities in the rural sphere.
Inequalities in access to land, agricultural technical assistance, and other complementary resources, among other shortcomings, mean that rural women are less likely than men to access markets and participate in the most lucrative export value chains, whether as entrepreneurs or independent farmers.
To this are added shadows of gender-based violence, such as physical and sexual violence among rural women of reproductive age, which remains high. The FAO exemplifies that in Colombia and Haiti, physical violence against rural women exceeds 25%, while in Guatemala it is over 15%.
In Latin America, where the rural population constitutes about 20% of the total, women—many of them indigenous—outnumber men in this sector, while nearly 46% of them live in conditions of extreme poverty. Although the global trend over the past 20 years has been a decrease in women’s participation in agricultural activities, the opposite has happened in Latin America and the Caribbean, a trend linked partially to the predominance of male emigration in the region.
Cuban Women of the Countryside
In Cuba, the rural woman has been the protagonist of important social transformations, contributing with her work in the fields and her leadership in the community. The Havana government’s official Facebook profile emphasizes that “her strength and capacity for adaptation are essential pillars of national progress.”
The Ninth Report of Cuba to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, dated October 18 of last year, states that the Cuban state has continued to pay attention to the development of rural life and its inhabitants, including women, who “enjoy all the rights established in the legislation.” They are also beneficiaries of various policies and programs, such as the Comprehensive Development Program “Plan Turquino,” which emphasizes the advancement of women in economic, social, and family spheres.
The right to work is also a reality in rural Cuban areas. In the Agricultural Sector, 219,772 women work, representing 25% of the total workforce; of these, 13% work in productive tasks. Specifically, within the system’s scientific potential, 1,959 are women, a figure representing 42%. There are 96,669 female cooperative members, representing 44%.
However, according to the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR), “in our country only 22.6% of people with land tenure are women… The largest proportion of women with land tenure are over 50 years of age.” This indicator, reflected in the Observatory on Gender Equality, is a sign of “how much more can be done to promote the participation of women in the agricultural sector,” specifies the FGR.
Empowering Through Land
Structural barriers, social norms, and discriminatory prejudices continue to limit the power of rural women on the planet, not only over the land they work but also in political participation within their communities and even in their own homes.
Globally, the UN reports that, with few exceptions, all gender and development indicators show that peasant women are in a worse situation than rural men and urban women.
Achieving gender equality and empowering rural women—that quarter of the world’s population—is not only the right thing to do but is also a crucial component in the fight against extreme poverty, hunger, and for climate action.
