Role of Woman and Man at Home and in the Field

Men are more likely than ever to embrace the idea of gender equality, but when it comes to the home front, traditional values dominate.

Domestic roles which a husband and wife undertake in the house are called conjugal roles these can include childcare and housework. In the past there were clean divisions between the husband's bread-winning role and the wife's housewife/mother role. Today it can be argued that the divisions of labour within the home have become blurred and household tasks are shared. Some sociologists argue that a 'new man' is emerging, and he seems to be sharing more domestic tasks, engaging emotionally with women and showing interest in developing his fathering skills.

In Pakistan, like everywhere else, the roles of men and women are classified based on the local cultural context. Pakistani society is largely patriarchal and in many communities, women are under the control of men and often accorded to a lower social status. Gender role s have therefore, been stereotyped as been masculine and feminine, which affects the division of labour and resources within the household. Following the impact of globalization and the country’s efforts in addressing gender inequalities, more women in urban and rural areas are becoming involved in economic activities and going out to work to earn money. The current expectations of their roles at household level, however, remain the same: after work, women are expected to cook, fetch water and conduct all household chores as usual, but it is unclear for how much longer women can focus on both demands as carefully as require. Several studies have looked at the gender role division in traditional households when it comes to general well-being of family members. In Pakistan, for example, women are considered responsible for all domestic duties ranging from cooking, collecting water, taking care of patients and serving men. Studies on treatment-seeking behavior for children indicate that women are the first ones to recognize illness symptoms because they spend most of their time with the children. The husband becomes involved in treatment-seeking, when it needs to be sought outside the home, as it is usually him who pays for treatment.

Role In Agricultural Fields

Agriculture can be an important engine of growth and poverty reduction. But the sector is underperforming in many countries in part because women, who are often a crucial resource in agriculture and the rural economy, face constraints that reduce their productivity. In this paper we draw on the available empirical evidence to study in which areas and to what degree women participate in agriculture. Aggregate data shows that women comprise about 43 percent of the agricultural labour force globally and in developing countries. But this figure masks considerable variation across regions and within countries according to age and social class. Time use surveys, which are more comprehensive but typically not nationally representative , add further insight into the substantial heterogeneity among countries and within countries in women’s contribution to agriculture. They show that female time - use in agriculture varies also by crop, production cycle, age and ethnic group. A few time-use surveys have data by activity and these show that in general weeding and harvesting were predominantly female activities. Overall the labour burden of rural women exceeds that of men, and includes a higher proportion of unpaid household responsibilities related to preparing food and collecting fuel and water. The contribution of women to agricultural and food production is significant but it is impossible to verify empirically the share produced by women. Women’s participation in rural labour markets varies considerably across regions, but invariably women are over represented in unpaid, seasonal and part-time work, and the available evidence suggests that women are often paid less than men, for the same work.

The international development community has recognized that agriculture is an engine of growth and poverty reduction in countries where it is the main occupation of the poor. But the agricultural sector in many developing countries is underperforming, in part because women, who represent a crucial resource in agriculture and the rural economy through their roles as farmers, labourers and entrepreneurs, almost everywhere face more severe constraints than men in access to productive resources. Efforts by national governments and the international community to achieve their goals for agricultural development, economic growth and food security will be strengthened and accelerated if they build on the contributions that women make and take steps to alleviate these constraints.

 The 2008 World Development Report presented compelling empirical evidence from a wide range of countries that supports this finding (World Bank, 2007).

Women make essential contributions to the agricultural and rural economies in all developing countries. Their roles vary considerably between and within regions and are changing rapidly in many parts of the world, where economic and social forces are transforming the agricultural sector. Rural women often manage complex households and pursue multiple livelihood strategies. Their activities typically include producing agricultural crops, tending animals, processing and preparing food, working for wages in agricultural or other rural enterprises, collecting fuel and water, engaging in trade and marketing, caring for family members and maintaining their homes. Many of these activities are not defined as “economically active employment” in national accounts but they are essential to the well-being of rural households. This paper contributes to the gender debate in agriculture by assessing the empirical evidence in three areas that has received much attention in the literature:

• How much of the agricultural labour in the developing world is performed by women?

• What share of the world’s food is produced by women?

• Do women face discrimination in rural labour markets?

What women do in fields and rural employment

Women make important contributions to the agricultural and rural economies of all regions of the world. However, the exact contribution both in terms of magnitude and of its nature is often difficult to assess and shows a high degree of variation across countries and regions. This paper presents an overview of the evidence on the roles of women in agriculture and in rural labour markets. It also looks at demographic trends in rural areas with regard to the gender composition of rural populations.

Women in the agricultural labour force

Two types of data can contribute to measuring the contribution of women in the field: statistics on the share of women in the economically active population in agriculture and time use surveys, which document the time spent by men and women in different activities.

Economically active population in agriculture

Data on the economically active population in agriculture are available for many countries, and provide the most comprehensive measure of the participation of women in agriculture. In this measure, an individual is reported as being in the agricultural labour force if he or she reports that agriculture is his or her main economic activity. However, these data may underestimate female participation in agriculture for reasons discussed below, and caution is advised in interpreting changes over time because improvements in data collection may be responsible for some of the observed changes.

According to these data, women comprise just over 26 percent of the agricultural labour force in the developing world, a figure that has fallen slightly since 1990 and ranges from about 20 percent in the Americas to almost 57 percent in Asia. Even considering these data as lower bounds for the participation of women in the agricultural labour force, they do not support estimates above 60 percent except for a few countries.

The global average is dominated by Asia. Within Asia, the sub-regional averages range from about 35 percent in South Asia to almost 50 percent in East and Southeast Asia. The Asian average is dominated by Pakistan, where the female share of the agricultural labour force has increased slightly during the past three decades. The female share in India has remained steady at just over 50 percent. These very large countries mask changes in some smaller countries where the female share of the agricultural labour force appears to have increased dramatically, now exceeding 50 percent in Bangladesh. Other Asian countries such as Malaysia have seen declining female labour shares in agriculture.

Women make up almost 50 percent of the agricultural labour force in sub-Saharan Africa, a decrease from about 65 percent in 1990. The averages in Africa range from just over 40 percent in Southern Africa to just over 50 percent in Eastern Africa. These sub-regional averages have remained fairly stable since 1990, with the exception of Northern Africa, where the female share appears to have risen from 30 percent to almost 45 percent. The sub-regional data for Africa conceal wide differences between countries both in the share of female labour in agriculture and the trend.  

The developing countries of the Americas have much lower average female agricultural labour shares than the other developing country regions at just over 20 percent in 2010, slightly higher than in 1990. The South American countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru dominate the average and are responsible for most of the rising trend.

Time spent in agricultural activities

Time use surveys attempt to provide a more complete account of time use by men and women than are available from the labour force statistics reports. Such studies usually are not nationally representative and are not directly comparable because they usually cover small samples, report on different types of activities (that are not always clearly specified) and use different methodologies. Despite these caveats, a summary of the evidence from studies which specify time use by agricultural activity suggests interesting patterns.

Time-use surveys that cover all agricultural activities  reveal considerable variation across countries, and sometimes within countries, but the data are broadly similar to the labour force statistics discussed above. In Africa, estimates of the time contribution of women to agricultural activities ranges from about 30 percent in The Gambia to 60-80 percent in different parts of Cameroon. In Asia, estimates range from 32 percent in India to over 50 percent in China. The range is lower in Latin America, but exceeds 30 percent in some parts of Peru. Two separate studies are reported each for Zambia and Peru, and differences reflect different time periods and locations within the countries.

A striking degree of within-country variation is shown by time-use data for India. While the nationally representative data indicates that the national average for women’s share of total time-use in agriculture is 32 percent, data for West Bengal and Rajasthan reports women’s share as from less than 10 percent to more than 40 percent, respectively.5 But in both areas, younger women contribute a higher share of the total time provided in agriculture by their age group than older women do in theirs.

Time-use studies also reveal that female time-use in agriculture varies widely depending on the crop and the phase of the production cycle, the age and ethnic group in question, the type of activity and other factors.

Women’s contribution to agricultural production

women play a significant role in the agricultural labour force and in agricultural activities, although to a varying degree. Consequently their contribution to agricultural output is undoubtedly extremely significant, although difficult to quantify with any accuracy. It has often been claimed that women produce 60-80 percent of food.

 However, assigning contributions to agricultural outputs by gender is problematic because in most agricultural households both men and women are involved in crop production. It can be attempted to allocate output by gender by assuming that specific crops are grown by women and others by men and then aggregating the value of women’s and men’s crops to determine the share grown by women. Researchers have occasionally used this approach, especially in West Africa, where there are distinguishable cropping patterns by gender (Hoddinott and Haddad, 1995; Duflo and Udry, 2001). Yet, a careful analysis of agriculture in Ghana finds that while there are gendered patterns of cropping, the distinctions between men’s and women’s crops do not hold up well enough to use them to make inferences about men’s and women’s relative contribution to production. In addition, gendered patterns of cropping may change over time (Doss, 2002).

A direct comparison of production is possible between male- and female-headed households, but since the latter tend to have smaller farms and use fewer purchased inputs their output is naturally smaller. Table 1 presents a limited sample from a selected set of countries for which data is available (Doss, 2009). Female-headed households represent between 3 and 38 percent of all households and produce between 2 and 17 percent of the value of food produced. These data suggest that female-headed households produce less than their share would predict if resource use and productivity were equal with male-headed households.

Available data on rural and agricultural feminization shows that this is not a general trend but mainly a sub - Saharan Africa phenomena, as well as observed in some sectors such as unskilled labour in the fruit, vegetable and cut – flower export sector. This paper re-affirms that women make essential contributions to agriculture and rural enterprises across the developing world. But there is much diversity in women’s roles and over-generalization undermines policy relevance and planning. The context is important and policies must be based on sound data and gender analysis.

Conclusion:

In Pakistan, like everywhere else, the roles of men and women are classified based on the local cultural context. Pakistani society is largely patriarchal and in many communities, women are under the control of men and often accorded to a lower social status. Gender role s have therefore, been stereotyped as been masculine and feminine, which affects the division of labour and resources within the household. Following the impact of globalization and the country’s efforts in addressing gender inequalities, more women in urban and rural areas are becoming involved in economic activities and going out to work to earn money. The current expectations of their roles at household level, however, remain the same: after work, women are expected to cook, fetch water and conduct all household chores as usual, but it is unclear for how much longer women can focus on both demands as carefully as require. Several studies have looked at the gender role division in traditional households when it comes to general well-being of family members. In Pakistan, for example, women are considered responsible for all domestic duties ranging from cooking, collecting water, taking care of patients and serving men. Studies on treatment-seeking behavior for children indicate that women are the first ones to recognize illness symptoms because they spend most of their time with the children. The husband becomes involved in treatment-seeking, when it needs to be sought outside the home, as it is usually him who pays for treatment.