Globally, rural women make up 43% of the agricultural workforce, yet less than 15% of landowners are women.This is a reality that should not be lost sight of on International Rural Women’s Day.
These and other disparities reflect the deep gender inequalities that persist in rural areas.
In Latin America, where the rural population constitutes nearly 20% of the total, women – many of them indigenous – outnumber men in this sector, while around 46% of them live in conditions of extreme poverty.
These are just some of the statistical evidence that should always be taken into account, and today’s anniversary, instituted by the United Nations in 2007, motivates us to highlight them.
Despite these inequalities, rural women are key agents in achieving the economic, environmental and social changes necessary for sustainable development, notes the UN Women website, noting that among the many challenges they face are limited access to credit, health care and education.
All of which is further straining the situation due to the economic and food crisis that the world is experiencing, and to which is added climate change, which also has headwinds for rural women.
Drawing a red circle around this human conglomeration to concentrate attention is much more than contributing to their personal well-being, that of their families and communities;it also implies a boost to agricultural production in general if the large presence of women in this task is taken into account.
We owe them almost half of the food supply on the planet, they guard and protect biodiversity, they have learned to confront climate change by practicing sustainable agriculture, opting for drought-resistant seeds or leading, among many others, reforestation and awareness-raising initiatives in their communities, where they have become undeniable agents of change in the face of the environmental phenomena that ravage humanity.
In Latin America and the Caribbean in particular, women are also key figures in the transformation of traditional agri-food systems towards sustainable, resilient and inclusive models before 2030, as recognized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Even with such missions, in this part of the world they are still significantly and regrettably affected by the gender inequalities mentioned above, which limit their access to productive resources such as land itself, tools and technological innovation, while making it difficult for them to be recognized as producers and receive training, financing and other support from the State.
Added to this chain of deficiencies and omissions is the overload of unpaid work, both in the family and community spheres, and usually associated with the role of caregiver, which patriarchal prejudices burden women with.
In order to support the initiatives of rural women and their organizations, FAO has launched the Rural Women’s Empowerment and Environmental Sustainability Acceleration Programme, a regional initiative that will support the economic, social and political empowerment of rural women, while contributing to the conservation of biodiversity and the restoration of ecosystems.
Cubans next to the land
This Greater Antilles celebrates the International Day of Rural Women by showing progress in implementing policies in defense of gender equality and the empowerment of women
And in the rural sector, there are many who have benefited from these efforts because, according to the “Demographic Indicators of Cuba and its territories for 2023”, July 2024 Edition, of the Center for Population and Development Studies of the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), of the 2 million 537 thousand 202 Cubans as the total rural population, 1 million 181 thousand 998 are women.
However, the National Report of Cuba, issued last June on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the approval of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in Latin America and the Caribbean, shows that this Island knows and acts because there are still many challenges regarding rural women.
Among them, the document mentions the need to strengthen technical capacities and the mobilization of resources to advance in the implementation of the comprehensive and integrated system of attention to gender violence and in the family scenario, as well as to validate and extend to all provinces the proposal of the Comprehensive System of Care for Life, pending issues that obviously include rural women, whose economic empowerment must continue to advance.
Likewise, Law No. 148/2022 on Food Sovereignty and Food and Nutritional Security favors the incorporation of women in general as well as the elimination of sexist patterns in the production, processing, marketing and consumption of food.
There is also, among other development programs, the Local Agricultural Innovation Project that has already benefited 13,946 women with jobs, income, training, advice, equipment and supplies, in 75 municipalities and 285 productive forms.
Despite what has been achieved, the planet is still indebted to rural women, those who give birth to the earth with the same dedication with which they bring their children into the world.
Por Redacción TV Yumurí 
