Gendered Perceptions of Land Ownership and Agricultural Decision-making in Ecuador: Who Are the Farm Managers?

Twyman, Jennifer; Useche, Pilar; Deere, Carmen Diana

doi:10.3368/le.91.3.479

Cited by 63 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Even when women are included in decision-making, their roles are often misunderstood or over-looked by program designers (Twyman, Useche & Deere, 2015). These disadvantages and oversights can accumulate over time and contribute to a worsening of the gender asset gap now recognized as a key contributor to lower productivity and other adverse outcomes for women and children in rural areas .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies in developing countries show that women's work is undercounted in standard surveys, income contributions of women are undervalued, and women's roles in agricultural decision making are underappreciated (Dixon-Mueller & Anker, 1988;Fisher et al, 2010;Twyman, Useche & Deere, 2015). Underestimating women's work and contribution to household full income will lead to overestimate the benefits of activities that increase income but also increase women's workload (Johnson et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Andes, women are partners in agricultural production, often bear a primary responsible for marketing agricultural products (Amaya & Alwang, 2013), and Andean households have been described as two-headed, meaning that both husband and wife are involved in decision making (Deere & Twyman, 2012;Hamilton, 1998;Twyman, Useche & Deere, 2015). Twyman, Useche & Deere (2015) examine determinants of how perceptions of participation in farming activities and farm decision-making vary between husbands and wives in a bargaining framework. They find that women landowners are involved in decisionmaking and joint decision-making predominates on Ecuador's farms (p. 495).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Farm Decision Making and Gender: Results from a Randomized Experiment in Ecuador

2017

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Substantial resources have been devoted to mitigating the asset gender gap in developing country agriculture. Efforts have been taken to understand the role of women in decision making and in farm operations. Recommendations for best practices in eliciting information on women's roles have emphasized the importance of sex-disaggregated data collection and analysis. Collection of sex-disaggregated data is not straightforward and careful attention to context is needed. In Ecuador's highlands, chemical use in agriculture is widespread, and outreach and training programs to reduce this use are essential. These programs should target the appropriate decision makers. This paper presents results from a field experiment conducted in the Ecuador highlands where responding farm households are randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: (i) a male respondent, (ii) a female respondent, and (iii) both adult male and female respondents (interviewed separately, but with knowledge that the other would also be interviewed). We assess whether treatment assignment affects responses to questions about decision making and responsibility for agricultural activities.Perceptions about household decision making and who is responsible for agricultural activities vary substantially by type of respondent. Men are more likely to claim sole responsibility; women are more likely to claim responsibility or that decisions are jointly made. In households where both man and woman were interviewed (separately) we found stark differences in responses about responsibilities, with men claiming sole responsibility at higher rates. Interviewing both members led to less divergence in responses, but large differences in perceptions about responsibilities remain when both are interviewed. Best interviewing practices depend on the type of information needed: for precise quantification of gender roles, complex methods may be necessary, but where qualitative information is sufficient, single-member interviews may be sufficient. Keywords:Women's decisionmaking, survey design, randomized control trial, integrated pest management, Ecuador. 3 Highlights:Household decision makers should be targeted in pesticide education programs, yet no solid guidance exists for identifying these decision makers Randomized survey experiment uncovers information about how survey design affects responses about decision making and responsibilities Women and men have different perceptions about decision making, but interviewing both in the same household does not solve the problem More research is needed on how to measure gender roles in household decision making 4 Acknowledgements

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Farm Decision Making and Gender: Results from a Randomized Experiment in Ecuador

2017

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“…What is more, many research endeavors still operate under the cultural bias that household heads are male and that men speak for all members, even when data exist to the contrary (Twyman et al 2015). Women's work, knowledge, perspectives, needs and challenges remain invisible to, and unexplored by, researchers for reasons ranging from the typically localized and non-monetized nature of women's work to the greater public presence and decision-making authority of local men (Howard 2003b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender-responsive participatory research for social learning and sustainable forest management

Elias¹,

Jalonen²,

Fernandez

et al. 2016

Forests, Trees and Livelihoods

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Participatory research on forests has been commended for fostering social learning, innovation, community empowerment, social inclusion, and leading to more sustainable resource management. Yet, critiques of participatory approaches -and of the simplistic ways they are, at times, employed to address gender and social exclusionalso abound. These call for new strategies to meaningfully engage socially differentiated men and women in research on natural resource management. This special issue focuses on the nexus between gender and participatory research in forest and woodland management. It examines: (1) the diversity of stakeholders' forest-related knowledge, skills, needs and priorities in forest-dependent communities through the use of gender-responsive participatory approaches, and (2) choices in research design that can foster inclusive participation, knowledge sharing and social learning within and among social groups. In this introductory paper, we position the special issue in relation to critiques regarding the lack of attention to gender in participatory research. We then summarize the authors empirical findings, contextually rooted across four African and Asian countries, and their importance for understanding the value, opportunities and challenges of working with participatory methods, both from the perspective of the researchers and of the research participants. The papers illustrate that traditional ecological knowledge is neither homogeneously distributed within communities nor concentrated among socially more powerful groups who, in the absence of a gender-responsive approach, are often the ones selected as research participants. The authors offer an optimistic view of the potential participatory methods hold, when applied in a gender-responsive way, for sharing knowledge and promoting inclusive social learning on forests and tree resources. Papers demonstrate the need to carefully consider when to create segregated or mixed spaces -or indeed both -for participants to create situations in which social learning within and across diverse social groups can occur.

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“…For the parcels who are under co-ownership between the spouses, we have two sources of information, his and hers, but in this analysis we focused only on the women's answers. See Twyman, Deere and Useche (2014), for an analysis of how the perception of the husbands regarding the participation of women many times is different than theirs (the women), and how they underestimate their contribution.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

¿Quién toma las decisiones agrícolas? Mujeres propietarias en el Ecuador.

Deere

Twyman

2014

ASYD

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ResumenEste trabajo investiga si las mujeres propietarias de parcelas participan en las decisiones agrícolas sobre ellas. Con base en una muestra nacional de Ecuador, el análisis demuestra que la gran mayoría de mujeres dueñas participan activamente en la conducción de sus parcelas, sean éstas propiedades de ellas de manera individual o en conjunto con su pareja. También revela que hay diferencias en el nivel de participación de las mujeres, dependiendo de su estado civil o situación marital (si son casadas o unidas en comparación con jefas de hogar solteras, separadas, divorciadas o viudas) y de la forma de la propiedad. Además, su participación varía según la decisión agrícola bajo consideración. De todos modos, nuestro análi-sis conduce a una conclusión sobresaliente: los datos censales proporcionan una visión distorsionada de la agricultura familiar porque no se toma en cuenta que las decisiones agrí-colas son tomadas frecuentemente por la pareja y conllevan a una subestimación de la participación de las mujeres casadas/ unidas como agricultoras.Palabras clave: género, gerencia de fincas, tenencia de la tierra. IntRoduccIónA unque hace ya más de 40 años que se abrió el campo de investigación, conocido actualmente como género en el desarrollo, todavía no sabemos lo suficiente sobre algunas cuestiones bá-sicas de la agricultura latinoamericana. Por ejemplo, ¿cómo se distribuye la propiedad de la tierra cultivable entre hombres y mujeres?, ¿las mujeres propietarias serán las encargadas de la producción en las parcelas que poseen? Estas preguntas son importantes porque la actividad agrícola todavía se identifica AbstRActThis study investigates whether women landowners participate in the agricultural decisions about their plots. Based on a national sample from Ecuador, the analysis shows that the large majority of women owners participate actively in the conduction of their plots, whether they are their property individually or jointly with their couple. It also reveals that there are differences in the level of participation of women, depending on their marital status (whether they are married or united, in comparison to heads of households who are single, separated, divorced or widows) and the form of property. Also, their participation varies depending on the agricultural decision under consideration. In any case, our analysis leads to an outstanding conclusion: the census data provide a distorted vision of family agriculture because they do not take into account that agricultural decisions are frequently made by the couple, and they lead to an underestimation of the participation of women married/ united as agricultural producers.

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Gendered Perceptions of Land Ownership and Agricultural Decision-making in Ecuador: Who Are the Farm Managers?

Cited by 63 publications

References 47 publications

Farm Decision Making and Gender: Results from a Randomized Experiment in Ecuador

Farm Decision Making and Gender: Results from a Randomized Experiment in Ecuador

Gender-responsive participatory research for social learning and sustainable forest management

¿Quién toma las decisiones agrícolas? Mujeres propietarias en el Ecuador.

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