Macro scenario of regional women’s economic activity and education

Within developing countries in Asia and the Pacific region, women make up a substantial portion of the agricultural labour force, yet a systematic body of relevant macro data and national information on their roles and contributions is still lacking. The increased number of microlevel gender studies throughout the region is a positive development, balancing the limited availability of macrolevel data. A focus on farming systems has given rise to several studies of gender roles in specific agrozones or locations, whereas the remarkable growth in participatory rural appraisal has provided qualitative data on the contribution of rural women to local production. However, these studies were produced independently of each other and by researchers with varying skills and expertise. Consequently, they differ in quality, reliability, accuracy and common variables of analyses; thus it is difficult to generalize and extrapolate local findings to national trends. In this context, this review aims to describe the status of rural women drawing upon the existing aggregate data on the participation of women in the labour force and in the agriculture sector, as well as drawing information from diverse sources and case studies, to illustrate rural women’s contribution and resource situation in various types of productive work in the food and agriculture sectors. The macro level data presented in Table 3, Table 4 and Table 5 illustrate female participation in economic activity and agriculture and the educational attainment status in the countries in Asia and the Pacific region for which comparative data are available in Human Development Reports (2001 and 2004).

Regional rural women’s participation in the agriculture sector

Women’s participation in economic activity throughout Asia and the Pacific region, and the relative share of male and female labour force participation in agriculture, are presented in Table 3. The data indicate that in South Asian countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan, a particularly high percentage - more than 60 percent and up to 98 percent - of women are employed in the agriculture sector. Indeed, more women than men are employed in agriculture in each of these countries. In East and Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Viet Nam women also make a substantial contribution to the agriculture sector. For instance, among the economically active population, women’s participation in the agriculture sector in Cambodia is 78 percent, and 81 percent in Lao PDR. The data illustrate that in most Asian countries, a larger number of women than men are employed in agriculture as a percentage of the economically active population. Such a finding is even more significant given that the data for the economically active population in agriculture in Table 3 exclude rural women’s unpaid work contributing to value addition in the farm and family milieu. As a result, it is reasonable to believe that a considerable proportion of women’s contribution to agricultural labour throughout the region is invisible in macro statistics. If unpaid work were included, the figures for female employment in agriculture and rural production would be even higher.

Although a higher percentage of Pacific Island women are employed in the service sector than in agriculture, Table 3 shows that a significant number of women throughout the Pacific are engaged in various agricultural activities, ranging from lows of 1 to 3 percent in the atoll countries of Kiribati, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands (where there is an acute shortage of arable land) to highs of 80 percent in Vanuatu and 84 percent in Papua New Guinea, where the share of women employed in agriculture exceeds that of men (UNDP, 1999). Although the data in Table 3 display significant differences in the share of women employed in agriculture as a proportion of the economically active population in the Pacific, other studies demonstrate that women and girls play an integral role in family production and resource management systems throughout the Pacific. It is difficult to generalize about the contribution of these women to the agricultural workforce based on the use of different definitions and time periods in data collection and an overall scarcity of data. In some Pacific Island countries - such as Tonga where cultural mores dictate that agriculture is male work - gender roles discourage the formal participation of women in agricultural work.

Table 3. Female economic activity pattern in selected Asia and Pacific region countries

Column 1. Human Development Indicator UNDP HRD Report 2004

Columns 4 and 5: calculated on the basis of data on the economically active population and total population from ILO 2002 Table Gender Inequality in Economic Activity.

Columns 6 and 7: ^u indicates use of UNDP data. ^a indicates use of ADB data. Refers to 1990 or the nearest reference year. Figures for Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu refer to economically active population as a percent of the total population over 15 years.

Source: Column 3: FAO LIFDC data; columns 4 and 5: UNDP Human Development Report (HDR) 2004, Table 27; columns 6 and 7: UNDP HDR 2001 Table 24 and Asian Development Bank, 2002. Key Indicators of Developing Asian and Pacific Countries. Table 5 and Table 7.

Across Asia and the Pacific region even within the constraints of data deficiency, it is clear that with few exceptions women form a significant component of the labour force and make a substantial contribution to the agriculture sector. The predominance of women in the agriculture sector is referred to as the “feminization of agriculture/farming”. In general, findings and observations support the notion that the feminization of farming is occurring in many countries across the region. For the countries presented below (Table 4) for which the most current data are available, evidence supports the greater participation of women than men in agriculture. Indeed, there is a consistent trend that women’s participation in the agriculture sector is substantial and on the increase.

The report on Human Development in South Asia 2002 (Mahbub ul Hag Development Centre, 2003) states, “The majority of the 70 percent of South Asians who live in rural areas are women. They are responsible for producing food, yet they have the least access to means of production, and receive the lowest wages, if at all.” In Cambodia, women heads of households are more likely to work in agriculture than male heads of households and yet women are likely to be landless or have significantly smaller plots of land (MWVA, 2004). In the Republic of Korea during the last 10 years the percentage of full time female farmers has increased compared to that of males. Although the comparative wages for women have increased on average 5 percent in the last five years, women’s wages in agriculture and fisheries decreased by 13 percent (Rural Living Science Institute, 2003). According to Song (1999), patterns of the gender division of labour reflect the feminization of agriculture throughout China, where about 80 percent of the rural labour force consists of women. The feminization of agriculture is most evident in the poorer and more marginal areas. Women comprise more than 85 percent of the agricultural labour force in the south western provinces of Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou. The percentage of women labourers in some remote mountainous areas is even higher, at about 90 percent.

Table 4. Female participation in the agriculture sector, feminization of agriculture

Source: Table 27 Gender equality in economic activity: Human Development Indicators - UNDP Human Development Report 2004.

In conclusion, data confirm that countries with low and medium achievements in human development and gender development indices also tend to be low income food deficit countries and to have a larger share of women in agriculture. Such associated factors raise the interesting question whether rural women’s lack of access to productive resources including technology, capital, agriculture support services and information has an adverse effect on agriculture productivity in low income food deficit countries. In other words, does the persisting indifference to rural women’s contribution to agriculture and the constraints on women’s access to productive resources impede achieving food security goals? It is imperative that gender defined constraints that affect agriculture productivity be systematically investigated in selected food deficit countries that record high risks of hunger in the region.

“The predominance of women in the agriculture sector is referred to as the “feminization of agriculture/farming”. Data confirm that countries with low and medium achievements in human development and gender development indices also tend to be low income food deficit countries, and have a larger share of women in agriculture. Persisting indifference to rural women’s contribution to agriculture and the constraints on women’s access to productive resources might impede achieving food security goals.”

Rural women’s educational status: Regional overview

Female adult literacy rates for countries in the region are presented in Table 5. The table shows female literacy rates as a percentage of male literacy achievement to highlight gender differences. With only a few exceptions women are disadvantaged. The aggregate data available for the two reporting periods of 1999 (HDR 2001) and 2002 (HDR 2004) illustrate incremental gains in female adult literacy rates. Yet countries such as Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan still record lower rates of female adult literacy and thus larger differences between males and females in adult literacy gains. Given that the literacy data presented are not disaggregated by place of residency (urban versus rural), it is reasonable to assume that adult literacy among rural women is even lower. For instance, in Bangladesh, the adult literacy rate for rural women is only 36.2 percent, compared to 60.0 percent for urban women, and 56.1 percent for rural men compared to 75.4 percent for urban men (Pal, 2001). The data indicate gains in women’s education in Asia and the Pacific region over the years. With the exception of only a few countries, women’s adult literacy rates are relatively lower than those of men. Countries such as Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Cambodia and Lao PDR demonstrate the considerable inequality in adult literacy attainment between men and women. These countries also have economies highly dependent on agriculture.

Table 5. Gender patterns in education in Asia and the Pacific region countries

Source: Column 1: FAO LIFDC data; columns 2 and 3: UNDP Human Development Report (HDR) 2001, Table 23; UNDP Human Development Report (HDR) 2004, Table 26.

Note: Countries that do not have data presented in HDR 2001 and HDR 2004 are not included in the table.

Table 6. Gender ratio of adult literacy in the Pacific Islands

Source: UNDP Pacific Human Development Report, 1999, p. 23.

The educational situation of women in countries in the Pacific region is substantiated by data on the gender ratio of adult literacy in Table 6. Data from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, where female adult literacy is particularly low, confirm that women there have had less access to education than men over a long period (UNDP, 1999). Low literacy adversely affects women’s access to information and technology. Poor educational achievement limits their ability to participate in decision making processes at the family, community and national levels. The combined resource constraint in turn impairs their capacity to work for change. The relationship between low literacy rates and the high participation of women in agriculture in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands therefore warrants further exploration.

With the exception of developed countries and a few developing countries like the Maldives, Malaysia and some Pacific Island countries, this analysis shows that the vast majority of rural women in the region lag far behind men in improvements achieved in literacy. Specifically, countries like Bangladesh, India, Lao PDR, Nepal, Pakistan and Papua New Guinea reveal particularly low adult literacy rates for rural women. In the context of the feminization of farming, the overall lack of progress in improving female literacy has serious implications for the future of the agriculture sector’s productivity and food security in many countries across the region that depend largely on a female labour force with little or no formal education. Poorly educated rural women are more likely to encounter the adverse effects of structural changes in the economy, particularly in an agriculture sector oriented towards the competitive global market, but they are less likely to be able to respond positively. Prevailing shortfalls in rural female literacy achievement, coupled with trends towards the feminization of farming, underline the urgency for taking action to improve the skills and knowledge of rural women as a means to advance their technological and economic empowerment. National actions to empower women with education will be investments in human capital for agriculture and rural development with consequent positive outcomes for household and national food security.

“With the exception of developed countries and a few countries such as Maldives, Malaysia and some Pacific Island countries, this analysis shows that the vast majority of rural women in the region lag far behind men in improvements achieved in literacy.

Prevailing shortfalls in rural female literacy achievement, coupled with trends towards the feminization of farming, underline the urgency for taking action to improve the skills and knowledge of rural women as a means to advance their technological and economic empowerment.

National actions to empower women with education will be investments in human capital for agriculture and rural development with consequent positive outcomes for household and national food security.”