The role of gender norms in access to agricultural training in Chikwawa and Phalombe, Malawi

Mudege, Netsayi N.; Mdege, Norita; Abidin, P.E.; Bhatasara, Sandra

doi:10.1080/0966369x.2017.1383363

Cited by 74 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The under-representation of women within this study (see Table 1) supports the findings of Mudege et al (50) and Valette (6), where the common perception of men as household heads and women as illiterate helpers within the household, reproduces this gender bias, denying women access to information and training, and making women less willing to share their voice. Social influence seems to direct resources most commonly to men as they are considered the primary carers for the donkeys.…”

Section: Social Status and Gendersupporting

confidence: 88%

Cultural “Blind Spots,” Social Influence and the Welfare of Working Donkeys in Brick Kilns in Northern India

Watson¹,

Kubasiewicz²,

Chamberlain³

et al. 2020

Front. Vet. Sci.

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Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) work across the globe to improve the welfare of working equids. Despite decades of veterinary and other interventions, welfare issues persist with equids working in brick kilns. Engagement with all stakeholders is integral to creating abiding improvements to working equid welfare as interventions based purely on reactive measures fail to provide sustainable solutions. Equid owners, particularly those in low to middle-income countries (LMICs), may have issues such as opportunity, capacity, gender or socioeconomic status, overriding their ability to care well for their own equids. These "blind spots" are frequently overlooked when organizations develop intervention programs to improve welfare. This study aims to highlight the lives of the poorest members of Indian society, and will focus on working donkeys specifically as they were the only species of working equids present in the kilns visited. We discuss culture, status, religion, and social influences, including insights into the complexities of cultural "blind spots" which complicate efforts by NGOs to improve working donkey welfare when the influence of different cultural and societal pressures are not recognized or acknowledged. Employing a mixed-methods approach, we used the Equid Assessment Research and Scoping (EARS) tool, a questionnaire based equid welfare assessment tool, to assess the welfare of working donkeys in brick kilns in Northern India. In addition, using livelihoods surveys and semi-structured interviews, we established owner demographics, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, religion and their personal accounts of their working lives and relationships to their donkeys. During transcript analysis six themes emerged: caste, ethnicity, inherited knowledge; social status, and impacts of ethnic group and caste; social status and gender; migration and shared suffering; shared suffering, compassion; religious belief, species hierarchy. The lives led by these, marginalized communities of low status are driven by poverty, exposing them to exploitation, lack of community cohesion, and community conflicts through migratory, transient employment. This vulnerability influences the care and welfare of their working donkeys, laying bare the inextricable link between human and animal welfare. Cultural and social perspectives, though sometimes overlooked, are crucial to programs to improve welfare, where community engagement and participation are integral to their success.

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Section: Social Status and Gendersupporting

confidence: 88%

Cultural “Blind Spots,” Social Influence and the Welfare of Working Donkeys in Brick Kilns in Northern India

Watson¹,

Kubasiewicz²,

Chamberlain³

et al. 2020

Front. Vet. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This aligns with data from our survey which show that women were significantly more likely to be pragmatists, as seen by high responses to the openness to change question in the survey (i.e., they chose the option ''I am interested in what other farmers do but if it suits me, I will do things differently to other farmers."). These results echo the uneven power relations that are associated with traditional gender roles in agriculture in many parts of the world such as Africa and Eastern Europe, where men maintain power and control over the farming activities whilst women's contributions are primarily with housework [64]. Women's agricultural contributions tend more be seen as 'just helping' and therefore become under-valued, and where they instead usually undertake time-consuming labour such as weeding and planting rather than male tasks such as using machinery or ploughing fields (this was often observed during the project fieldwork).…”

Section: Gender-related Differences In the Embrace Of New Practicesmentioning

confidence: 68%

Gendered Roles in Agrarian Transition: A Study of Lowland Rice Farming in Lao PDR

et al. 2020

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Traditional lifestyles of lowland rice farmers of the southern provinces of Lao People’s Democratic Republic are rapidly changing, due to two important trends. Firstly, there is a push towards modernization and commercialization of farming. Secondly, though farmers still focus on rice farming as a key activity, there is an increasing move towards diversification of livelihoods. The changes have seen the uptake of non-rice crops, livestock husbandry and forest and river utilization; as well as non-farming activities. This has influenced gender relations, impacting household agricultural production decisions and amplified transitional trends. To explore the processes, we analyzed data from a study of innovation adoption amongst rice farmers in southern Lao PDR. The study revealed nuances of gender-based differences in the priorities and attitudes towards farming and off-farm activities, as well as differences in behaviour related to the adoption of new practices. Women were more focused on non-farming practices and considered engaging in the modern, non-traditional, economy more so than men. Women also reported experiencing greater challenges when engaging and trading in the agricultural marketplace. The study supports the importance of taking a gendered approach to understanding the inherent complexities within agrarian change.

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“…Gender effects on agricultural productivity and technology adoption has been extensively studied (Udry, 1995;Lubwama, 1999;Doss and Morris, 2000;Doss, 2001;Peterman et al, 2011;Ragasa, 2012;Ndiritu et al, 2012;Croppenstedt et al, 2013;Kilic et al, 2013;Mukasa and Salami, 2015;Murage et al, 2015;Ali et al, 2016;Mudege et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does gender matter in effective management of plant disease epidemics? Insights from a survey among rural banana farming households in Uganda

Kikulwe¹,

Okurut²,

Ajambo³

et al. 2018

J. Dev. Agric. Econ.

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Crop diseases significantly suppress plant yields and in extreme cases wipe out entire crop species threatening food security and eroding rural livelihoods. It is therefore critical to estimate the extent to which shocks like disease epidemics can affect food availability and the capacity of smallholder farmers to mitigate and reverse the effects of such shocks. This study utilizes sex-disaggregated data from 341 households in Uganda to analyze: first, gender and access to agricultural resources and their control; second, whether men and women in the targeted banana-farming communities share similar perceptions toward the effectiveness of the banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) control technologies and their respective information dissemination pathways; third, whether gender and farmer perceptions influence on farm adoption of BXW management practices. Lastly, it determines the impact of adoption of BXW control practices on food security. Results show that whereas most household assets are jointly owned, men have more individual ownership, control, and decision-making on income from household assets than women. Perceptions on effectiveness of BXW control practices and communication channels also differed between men and women. Men rated cutting down of infected plants to be more effective than women, but tissue culture, removal of male buds and disinfecting of farm tools were perceived to be equally effective by both men and women. In addition, apart from newspapers which were more effective in delivering BXW information to men, we found no differences in the effectiveness of other BXW information sources. More importantly, the study finds both gender and farmer perceptions on BXW control to significantly affect adoption of BXW control practices and household food security. For better and sustainable management of plant epidemics in Uganda, it is therefore critical that existing gender-based and underlying perception constraints are addressed.

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The role of gender norms in access to agricultural training in Chikwawa and Phalombe, Malawi

Cited by 74 publications

References 26 publications

Cultural “Blind Spots,” Social Influence and the Welfare of Working Donkeys in Brick Kilns in Northern India

Cultural “Blind Spots,” Social Influence and the Welfare of Working Donkeys in Brick Kilns in Northern India

Gendered Roles in Agrarian Transition: A Study of Lowland Rice Farming in Lao PDR

Does gender matter in effective management of plant disease epidemics? Insights from a survey among rural banana farming households in Uganda

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