Tea is a major cash crop in Malawi and the industry is one of the country’s biggest employers. For small-scale farmers, it is an important source of cash income. But deep gender inequalities prevail at smallholder level, and women tea farmers are being left behind.

As part of the Empowering Rural Producers in Commercial Agriculture project, women’s rights organisation Women's Legal Resources Centre (WOLREC) explored legal empowerment – the process through which people assess and secure their rights – focusing particularly on women smallholder tea farmers and how it could support their agency in their commercial relations.