October 2019
Women who live in rural communities face serious social and economic challenges due to gender stereotypes and discrimination, which prevent them from having equitable access to opportunities, resources, and services. Like women in urban areas, there is a generalized lack of recognition of rural women’s work to raise and care for children or manage
a home. In addition, their crucial role to guarantee food security through
peasant agriculture and animal husbandry is not always recognized or
seen as an essential contribution to the family economy or the country’s GDP.
Cultural practices and barriers make it difficult for women to even recognize their own interests, make these visible, and ensure that they are taken into account in decision-making. In spite of women’s essential contributions to care work, poverty reduction, and food security, their rights to land or remuneration for their work often go unrecognized, due to the existence of predominantly patriarchal structures.