Trainer's guide: Improving extension work with rural women
Module 1 The need to work with women
Section 1: Women in agriculture and rural development
Section 2: Barriers to women's involvement in extension
Section 3: Reaching women farmers: The difficulties faced by extension services
Module 2 Analysing women's activities
Module 3: Developing appropriate packages
Section 1 Technical content of extension packages
Section 3 Developing extension packages appropriate for rural women
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Rome 1996
Improving extension work with rural women
Why a Focus on Women
The role of women in agriculture and in rural development is increasingly recognized both at international and national level. There is a growing awareness of the need to reach women farmers and to fully involve them in development programmes. However, extension services still face difficulties in effectively communicating and working with women. Among the reasons for this is the lack of adequate training material addressing the issue of working with rural women.
Awareness of the need for specific training material on the issue is the first step. However, while much existing literature on extension mentions the need for such information on how to work with rural women, very rarely are any specific examples or information given on how this can be done.
By bringing together examples and practical information, this manual aims to fill this gap by providing field extension workers with a series of practical ideas on how to effectively conduct extension activities with women.
Objectives of the Manual
The manual is intended for use in training field extension agents and rural development workers working at the village level and it assumes a general knowledge of basic extension principles and methods.
The overall objective of this training manual is to assist field extension workers in working more effectively with women farmers. In particular, the manual aims to provide training materials and information that could enhance field workers capabilities to:
• identify needs, priorities, constraints and opportunities heed by rural women;
• ensure that extension packages meet specific gender requirements;
• contact and communicate effectively with rural women.
How to Use the Manual
This manual is intended for the trainer who will conduct or adapt the course. An accompanying participant's manual follows the same structure and brings together introductory notes, exercises and handouts which should be given to trainees. The participant's manual is in a loose leaf format and only the introductory notes on each module should be given to trainees in advance. Exercises and case studies should be given out at the beginning of each session as needed. Not all material may be needed for the trainees and the trainer should use his/her discretion as to what material should be used for a specific course.
Throughout the course, participants will develop a personal plan to improve their effectiveness in incorporating women in their extension activities. This will be an individual exercise developed in their own time and presented at the end of the course.
Time should be allocated at the end of each module for general discussion on how to incorporate the issues raised in participants' action plans.
An annex on Course Design (based on the information presented in the manual) is included to assist trainers in developing a course, which meets the specific local requirements. It covers needs assessment, revision of the course structure and objectives as well as adaptation of examples and selection of training methods.
How Is the Manual Structured?
The manual is divided into four modules:
Module 1: The Need to Work with Women
This introductory section is designed to ensure that trainees are properly aware of the significant role women play in agricultural and rural development and sets the scene for the main body of the course. It leads trainees to a fuller understanding of the constraints and problems faced by women, as well as of the reasons why women have so far had only limited access to extension activities. It should stimulate discussion among participants, giving them opportunities to analyse stereotypes and assumptions which may have limited their awareness of the importance of effectively reaching women farmers.
Module 2: Analysing Women's Role
This module covers issues related to analysing the situation of women in the specific area in which field workers operate. It begins with considerations about the kind of information that could be useful for planning effective extension activities. It then looks at the tools and methods available to collect this information and how to go about gathering the information required. A section on how to analyse the data collected and how to identify the areas relevant to extension planning concludes the module.
Module 3: Developing Appropriate Packages
Module three aims to assist extension workers to use the information they have gained about the needs, constraints and opportunities of rural women choosing extension packages which are relevant and appropriate to women's specific situation. Problems and issues identified in the previous module are used here in assisting extension staff to develop ways to overcome them. The module analyses the technological aspects of the extension package as well as issues such as credit, which often play a key role in farmers' decisions on whether or not to adopt a technology.
Module 4: Working with Rural Women in Practice
The final module considers practical issues which could facilitate women's participation in extension activities. The information collected about women is now used to plan the timing and location of extension programmes. Extension methods and training materials are reviewed with special reference to gender implications. The module also looks at the role of women groups and ways to work with them for extension activities.
Symbols and icons
The following are used throughout the text for easy identification of the information presented:
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training objectives of the module |
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key points analysed in the module |
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reference readings |
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example |
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outline of suggested teaching strategy |
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training activities |
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role play |
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additional readings |
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space left for the user's own notes. |
The need to work with women
This module aims at helping course participants understand the complexity of rural women's work. the variety of tasks they perform in agriculture, rural development and household management and the implications for their involvement in extension activities. Through discussions, exercises and case studies, participants will identify stereotypes and assumptions which may have limited their awareness of the importance of women's involvement in agriculture and rural development. They will look at problems and constraints that women farmers face with the objective of becoming better aware of issues which may hinder their participation in extension activities and access to information.
Since creating or strengthening this awareness involves helping participants to analyse their assumptions and sometimes to revise their present beliefs and attitudes, the structure of this module includes a high component of group discussion. Background material included in the module has been kept very short, and handouts mainly consists of a few tables and graphs with data about women's activities throughout the world.
The success of the module cannot be judged only on participants' ability to memorize some of the key points presented. The module will rather have achieved its goals if it has had an impact on participants' perceptions and understanding of the importance of the work of rural women in agriculture and rural development.
The Module is divided into three sections:
• Women in Agriculture and Rural Development;
• Barriers to Women's Involvement in Extension;
• Reaching Women Farmers: Difficulties Faced by Extension Services.
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By the end of the module participants will: • have a clear understanding of the importance and complexity of the work of women farmers; • be able to describe the main problems women farmers face which have limited their participation in extension activities in their area. |
Students will be asked to fill in a questionnaire at the beginning of the first module. They will be given the same questionnaire to fill in at the end of the module, and the variation looked at to assess any change of attitudes. An example of such a questionnaire is given as Annex 1.1 at the end of this module
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Unless, at the end of the module, participants have developed or enhanced their awareness of the need to involve women in extension activities in a more effective and meaningful way, the motivation needed for the rest of the course may be affected. More importantly, it would not bring about the expected change in behaviour needed for translating into action what is learnt during the course. |
The more participants have the opportunity to analyse their perceptions and attitudes regarding women's role in agriculture, the more receptive they will be to the course content and the more likely they will be to implement what they have learned. Since this is mostly a self-learning process the trainer should try to provide as much additional local information on the topic as possible, as well as to present the topic from different angles to stimulate discussion.
It is therefore suggested that preconceptions, stereotypes and doubts that participants may have at this stage be extensively discussed during this session.
Key points examined by this module are:
• roles played by women in agricultural production and rural development;
• problems faced by women farmers which hinder their participation in extension activities;
• reasons for the limited success which extension services have had in reaching rural women;
• aspects to consider in improving rural women's participation in extension activities.
Women in agriculture and rural development
This section aims to stimulate discussion among participants about their perceptions regarding women's involvement in agriculture. Their estimates are then compared with statistical data from throughout the world. Discussion about the gap between these figures and the participants' estimates should aim to bring to the surface any misconceptions and stereotypes held by the participants. To make the section more useful and relevant to the participants' own situation, the trainer should provide, wherever possible, data related to the local situation (national figures or district ones).
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Estimates show that women represent more than half of the labour required to produce the food consumed in developing countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa the figure is higher, reaching three-quarters of the total labour. More specifically, African women perform most of the work related to some agricultural tasks, e.g. hoeing, weeding, storage operations and processing. |
While in Africa women and men typically farm separate plots, in Asia and Latin America, they tend to work together on the family farm. Throughout Asia women's involvement in agriculture is very significant and it is estimated that they contribute between 10 and 50 percent of total agricultural labour. Women play an important role in peasant agriculture also in Latin America, where their total share of agricultural labour is around 25 percent, with a much higher contribution to tasks such as harvesting, processing and other post harvest operations.
Women farmers belong, generally, to the small farmer category. They are faced with all the problems common to small farmers. In addition, the cultural, social and economic conditions of women in general, and women farmers in particular, mean that there are a number of specific problems related only to women working in agriculture.
It is important to stress that women farmers cannot be considered to be a homogeneous category, sharing exactly the same sort of problems and facing the same constraints. While it is possible to draw out some common principles which allow a broad definition of the condition of "woman farmer", it needs to be recognized that there is considerable diversity also. Women, as with men, include young, old, disabled and able bodied, married and single, poor and relatively wealthy, from minority and majority groups, connected with influential power groups and the relatively powerless. For example, young unmarried women farmers may need to be considered and addressed by extension services differently to older or married women. An approach which treats all women farmers as the same, can end up as inappropriate as those which assume that farmers as a whole are all the same.
Despite the significance of women's role in agricultural development, evidence throughout developing countries shows that women's farming productivity and efficiency levels often remain very low. Among the key reasons for this is the lack of technical advice they receive on production and marketing, cultural practices, skills and technology. Extension services frequently fail to provide adequate information to women farmers through failing to recognize their specific needs. Women farmers face specific constraints not faced by men. In addition to their productive tasks they are frequently over burdened with household responsibilities which they cannot delegate; they are often less educated than men and have a more limited access to resources such as credit If an extension programme deals effectively with these constraints, it will be easier for women farmers to get involved in its activities.
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Questionnaire Distribute the questionnaire (Annex 1.1) to participants and ask them to complete it. Do not explain the purpose of the questionnaire at this stage. Collect the completed questionnaires before starting the section. |
Women's Role in Agricultural Production
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Ask participants to write, on the table provided for the exercise, what they think the following figures are: • percentage of men and women involved in agriculture in the world (i.e.: out of 100 men, how many are involved in agricultural activities, and out of 100 women how many are involved in agriculture); • percentage of men and women involved in agriculture in your region. |
If you have figures of these percentages in your country or district, ask participants to estimate them and to add the figures to their list.
Once everybody has completed their estimates, ask each participant to read out their figures and note them all on the flip chart There will normally be quite a range of figures, reflecting individual perceptions of what the role of women in agriculture could be.
Add to the list the official statistics as listed in Table 1.1, presenting these percentages for men and women on a world scale, within your region as well as in other regions of the developing world. Also add the official figures for your country/district, if available.
If the estimates are very different from the official statistics, start a discussion by asking participants what could be the reasons for their over or underestimates. It may also be interesting to ask participants who came up with estimates fairly different from each other, to describe the reasons for their choice of figures and to encourage a discussion from this point.
Gender Related Responsibilities
Participants should now be asked to mention the main agricultural and household tasks. Write these on a flip chart. For each task ask them what is the share of responsibility men have and the share that women have in their area.
Task |
Men |
Women | |
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Show any local or national official figures available and compare them with participants' perceptions.
You may also wish to show participants Table 1.2: How the work is divided in Africa (percentage of total labour in hours) and Table 1.3: Labour Distribution in a District of Pakistan, which stress that, although women's role is always very significant, labour distribution is highly location specific.
The discussion should explore differences among participants' perceptions (and, when available, between these and official statistics) and reasons behind the possible discrepancies. The following issues could also be raised in discussion:
• Looking at the lists, how do the main tasks of men and women complement each other?
• Where should extension services place their attention: tasks played by men, those played by women or both?
• What would be the effect of concentrating the extension efforts on only one of the three lists?
Female Headed Household
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In many rural areas of the world, an increasing number of men are moving to the towns or to other countries in search of better paid jobs. One result of this migration is that the number of female headed households is growing. Ask the group for their views on the likely effects of this on: • agricultural production; • the work of rural women; • what implications this would have for extension activities. |
Barriers
This section provides participants with an opportunity to discuss their perceptions of the traditional, social and institutional factors which may limit women's participation in extension. The issues outlined in this section cover a range of problems not all of which will necessarily be present or require action in all countries. Problems will vary from area to area, and it will be only after a detailed assessment of the situation (Module 2) that participants will know which are the specific problems of rural women in their area.
These problems and their implications for extension will be looked at in detail in the following sections. The purpose of this section is to raise or increase awareness of the constraints to women's involvement.
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Both men and women farmers, especially the poorer ones, face a number of problems or constraints which affect their ability to participate in and benefit from extension activities to improve agricultural production and the well-being of the rural household. |
Extension workers need to be aware of social and institutional factors that create barriers for women's involvement in extension and adequately address them in planning extension activities.
Land
Land
Women's rights to land vary widely throughout the world. In some areas religious laws forbid female land ownership. Even when civil law gives women the right to inherit land, local customs may rule otherwise. In Sub-Saharan Africa, where women have the main responsibility for household food production, they are generally limited to use of the land, but not ownership, and even this use needs the consent of a male relative. Some resettlement and irrigation projects have actually worsened women's rights to land by providing formal titles to men only. Lack of ownership reduces the likelihood that women will invest much time or resources in the land they work, or adopt long term farming practices such as tree planting.
Women farmers also generally farm smaller plots of land than men, both in absolute terms and in relation to household size. They also tend to be allocated poorer land, the quality of which deteriorates even further as it is intensively cultivated.
Land reform programmes often fail to recognize women as potential beneficiaries. A review of 13 programmes in Latin America found that the majority had insignificant numbers of female beneficiaries or had not even considered women as a beneficiary category. Even when female heads of households are included as potential beneficiaries, they may have lower land allocations than male household heads, as happened in a project in El Salvador,
If property rights to cultivable land are only given to men, women may have few incentives to adopt sustainable farming practices. This gender bias will be particularly important in cases where sustainable natural resource management requires labour-intensive systems, such as tree planting. Indeed, a number of studies in Africa find that women farmers are less likely than men to plant tree crops such as coffee and cocoa.
Lack of Equipment and Appropriate Technology
Female farmers generally own fewer tools than men. New technology has also often been developed without consideration of women's needs. Recently, however, international research efforts have developed a number of machines specifically aimed at work women tend to do. These new machines include micro rice mills, direct seeding equipment, transplanters, and threshing machines developed by the International Rice Research Institute, and cassava processing equipment developed by International Institute for Tropical Agriculture.
Labour saving equipment, however, has a different effect on smallholders looking for labour saving devices than on hired labourers. For women who farm their own plots, new technologies may reduce drudgery and increase productivity; but for female hired labourers, labour saving devices may mean the loss of employment and income. Also, where decisions about investment in equipment are made mainly by husbands, investment in labour saving technologies for women is often a low priority.
Do Agricultural Technologies Help or Hurt Rural Women?
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The distribution of the costs and benefits of technology adoption depends on the specific cultural and social characteristics of a particular location. In one area in the Philippines. the introduction of a mechanical thresher relieved both men and women of threshing and substantially speeded the threshing process. As a result, rice farmers were able to grow a second crop of rice, which in turn led to increased employment for women in transplanting, weeding and harvesting. The benefits substantially outweighed the small cost of reduced opportunities for manual labour in threshing. |
In Bangladesh, however, the substitution of a mechanical rice mill for a traditional threshing implement had a negative effect on poor and landless women who had previously earned income by providing hand-pounding services. The negative effect resulted from cultural restrictions on women's leaving their homestead for alternative employment.
Lack of Access to Credit
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Women farmers often face additional obstacles to obtaining credit and consequently are less able to purchase inputs. Statistics show that women have less access to credit than men, despite the generally better loan repayment rates. |
Requirements for obtaining credit differ from place to place. Property that is acceptable as collateral (guarantee of repayment), especially land, is usually held by men, and formal financial institutions often do not accept the types of valuables which are held by women (such as jewellery). Women may also not be able to afford the time involved in obtaining credit. In rural Kenya, distance to a bank affects much more the chances of obtaining credit for women than it does for men.
Women's lower educational levels relative to men's, and their lack of familiarity with loan procedures may also limit their possibilities of obtaining credit from male credit officers or moneylenders.
Since the early 1980s, a number of alternatives to the formal sector have given women access to credit and financial services. Most programmes do not heavily subsidize interest rates, and they link repayment to future lending. Successful programmes:
• reduce transaction costs;
• charge commercial interest rates;
• establish deposit facilities;
• target poor clients;
• develop income generating skills;
• strengthen existing local institutions such as (women) farmers groups;
• emphasize the provision of financial services rather than business training.
Lower Levels of Education
School
In the early 1980s, average literacy rates for men in developing countries were over 50 percent, while for women they were 30 percent or less. The gap continues to be largest in rural areas, where educational levels are generally lower, despite the significant social benefits shown in educating women (see Table 1.4: Illiteracy Rates by Region and Gender). This gap has serious implications for agricultural productivity and incomes. Better educated farmers are more likely to adopt new technologies and to have access to extension services. For example, a study of coffee, a high value crop, in Kenya, found that increasing the primary education of women farmers not only led them to plant coffee trees more readily, but also increased the adoption of coffee by other women farmers, who are more likely to copy women than men farmers.
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Common Constraints Faced by Rural Women |
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Ask participants to get together in small groups (maximum 5 people each) and ask them to: • list the most common problems heed by women farmers in their area which could directly affect women's participation in extension activities; • identify the causes of the problems. |
To structure their discussion the following form could be used:
Problem/constraint |
Reason(s) for the problem |
1. Time related. - - |
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2. Mobility related. - - |
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3. Credit related: - - |
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4. Other problems. - - |
Time Related Problems
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Once participants have completed the exercise, ask one group to present the results of their discussion on the first point (time related constraints) to all participants. Invite everybody to comment or add to the list. Ask participants to contribute examples of the situations discussed which they have seen. |
Ask participants to look back et Tables 1.2 and 1.3, on the division of agricultural and household work between men and women. Some of the tasks listed are seasonal, others are occasional, others frequent, and some are daily. Ask participants to revise the list and the group tasks according to their frequency into:
• occasional
• frequent
• daily
• seasonal
Frequency of tasks and gender related responsibilities have clear implications for the amount of time men and women will have available each day. It will be clear from this analysis that women are more involved than men in routine, time consuming activities and that therefore time availability is more of a constraint for them. If participants add to Table 1.1. other household tasks necessary for the well-being of the family (cooking, looking after children, cleaning, laundry, repairing household items, etc.) time appears as an even greater constraint.
The direct implication of this is that women have less total time available than men to participate in extension activities. Also, their free time may not coincide with that of the men.
Mobility Related Problems
Invite another group to present to participants the results of their group's discussion regarding the second point (mobility related problems). As in the previous section, ask all participants to contribute their own views and experiences regarding factors affecting women's freedom to move inside and outside the community. If not mentioned in the discussion, add the following:
• social or religious restrictions which prevent women from travelling freely;
• less cash available to pay for transport;
• fewer means of transportation available for their use.
As with time constraints, limited mobility has a noticeable impact on the ability of women to become involved in extension activities.
Access to Credit
Ask a third group to present the results of their discussion on credit constraints and invite everybody to comment or add to the list. Always encourage participants to mention examples of the situations discussed which they know from personal experiences. Make sure the following points are raised during the discussion: collateral requirements - women may lack secure land tenure or title to land;
• requirement that a male head of household signs or co-signs for the loan;
• requirements on the size of land holding that prevent smallholders from obtaining loans;
• distance and travel cost to credit institution;
• low literacy and low numeracy make it difficult for women to fill in loan applications;
• information about credit is at times passed on only to men.
Other Problems
Another group can present any other constraints they have identified, which they do not see as related to the points analysed so hr. and which have direct implications for women's ability to take part in extension activities. As with the other cases, encourage some discussion and exchange of views at the end of the group presentation.
Some of the following points could be mentioned in the discussion:
• social, cultural and religious restrictions that might prevent male extension workers from contacting and working with women farmers as well as preventing women from joining extension activities planned for a mixed group of men and women;
• training facilities are very rarely adapted to the needs of rural women (e.g. separate living quarters for overnight courses or separate classrooms);
• the level of education of rural women is frequently lower than that of men, which limits the effectiveness for women of an activity planned for men farmers;
• women tend to have less secure land tenure and smaller plots which are often of poorer quality and at a greater distance from the household.
These factors could act both as a disincentive to take part in activities and affect the appropriateness of the information provided.
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__________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ |
Farmer
The first two sections of this module have outlined some of the reasons for the limited integration of women in extension activities. More specifically, the two sections have highlighted:
• the significance of women's role in agricultural production and the well-being of rural households;
• the specific time and mobility problems and constraints women farmers face;
• problems faced by women in accessing credit and inputs.
This section highlights some additional difficulties, related to communication problems. In a number of cases, for instance, extension has failed to effectively reach rural women because it has communicated directly only with men farmers, wrongly assuming the information will automatically be passed on to women. In other cases, communication methods have not been adapted to take into consideration the specific situation of women.
Most of these issues will be discussed in detail in Module 4. The aim of this preliminary discussion is for participants to gain an initial awareness of the issues.
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We have seen so far that, when extension does not reach women effectively, the chances of meeting its goals of improving agricultural production. or the living standards of the household are greatly reduced. In some more extreme cases, it can also have some negative unintentional side effects, such as in the two case studies presented below. |
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Ask participants to get together in small groups and give each group one of the two case studies. Ask them to briefly analyse the situation, answering the questions at the end of each case study. |
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In a rural community in Mexico, women have always been responsible for taking care of the water supply. A water supply project provided pumps for the purpose of improving the supply of water. Training on how to maintain the new water supply system was given to men, since the extension service considered it to be a man's job. However, the men did not maintain the system because water supply was women's responsibility. Shortly after the completion of the project, the new water supply system broke down and nobody repaired it. |
• What went wrong?
• What would you have done had you been in charge of training people for using and maintaining the pumps?
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In an area of Burkina Faso, men were trained in using animal traction for ploughing their fields, with the aim of allowing them to farm larger areas and achieve higher production levels. Women, who were responsible for weeding, were given no new technology or training to cope with the larger areas under production. Consequently they were unable to weed all the crops and the total yield was not higher than from farming a smaller area. |
• What went wrong?
• What other approaches could have been used?
After the group discussion, invite one group that has looked at the first case study and one group that has looked at the second, to present the results of their analysis.
Allow some time at the end of the group presentation for participants to share their views and discuss the case studies in a plenary. Encourage participants to think of any examples from their own area in which similar situations have occurred.
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Ask some of the participants to role play the following two situations. Hand out the roles only to the players. Give them some time to organize their thoughts. |
• Situation 1:
Husband attends meeting on food processing, comes home but does not discuss with wife and children issues raised at the meeting (players: husband, wife, and an additional member of the family)
• Situation 2
Extension officer refuses to include a woman infest Plot Project because the size of her farm is too small (players: woman farmer, extension officer)
After the exercise, encourage the players to mention any of the feelings they experienced, and reasons for their behaviour. Also ask the other participants for their views on what the problems were.
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The World's Women 1970-1990 -Trends and Statistics United Nations, 1991 The Role of Women in Agriculture and Rural Development (Bibliography, 1986- 1994) FAO, 1994 Women in Agricultural Development FAO's Plan of Action FAO, 1990 Agricultural Extension and Farm Women in the 1980s FAO, 1993 |
Annex 1.1
Sample Questionnaire for Completion by Participants at the Start of the Course
Names should not be marked on this questionnaire so that participants feel free to give their opinions without influence as to how they might be judged.
(questions to be adapted, added to, or deleted as appropriate)
strongly disagree |
disagree |
uncertain |
agree |
strongly agree |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
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1. Men and women should have separate duties. |
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2. Women are good at handling money. |
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3. Housework is hard work. |
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4. Women are more intelligent than men. |
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5. Women's work is less important than men's. |
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6. It is more important for girls to be educated than boys. |
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7. The man should be the head of the household. |
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8. Women work more than men. |
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9. Men are not suited to look after children. |
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10. It's natural for girls to want to look after the home. |
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11. It's natural for boys to want to look after the home. |
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12. Women should obey their husbands. |
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13. Housework is not work. |
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14. Men should be expected to help in the home. |
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15. Men and women work well together. |
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16. Men waste more time than women. |
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17. Cash crops should be men's responsibility. |
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18. At is natural for boys to want to work with machines. |
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19. At is natural for girls to want to work with machines. |
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20. Women are not interested in extension activities. |
Scoring
To ensure participants feel free to answer without pressure from others, no name should be marked on the questionnaires.
Some questions will show a positive attitude towards women when the respondent marks the 'strongly agree' column (5), while others will show a positive attitude towards women when the respondent marks the 'strongly disagree' column (1). Therefore, when analysing the results of the questionnaires, some questions can be scored as marked, others will need the score reversed (i.e. a score of I becomes a score of 5).
Questions 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 11, 14, 15, 16, 19 score as marked
Questions 1, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 17, 18, 20 reverse mark, i.e.
strongly disagree |
5 |
disagree |
4 |
uncertain |
3 |
agree |
2 |
strongly agree |
1 |
(see example below)
Mark each question according to these scores in the blank column to the right. Then calculate the total score for each questionnaire and divide it by 20 (the number of questions). This will give a score for an individual questionnaire (see example below). The scores for all the questionnaires should then be averaged for the whole class to give a measure of attitude at the beginning of the course. The higher the score, the more open the attitude to working with women. The same questionnaire should then be given out again at the end of module I and the score calculated again to give a measure of any change of attitude.
Example of Scoring
strongly disagree |
disagree |
uncertain |
agree |
strongly agree |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
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1. Men and women should have separate duties. |
Ö |
1 | ||||
2. Women are good at handling money. |
Ö |
1 | ||||
3. Housework is hard work. |
Ö |
2 | ||||
4. Women are more intelligent than men. |
Ö |
2 | ||||
5. Women's work is less important than men's. |
Ö |
2 | ||||
6. It is more important for girls to be educated than boys. |
Ö |
2 | ||||
7. The man should be the head of the household. |
Ö |
1 | ||||
8. Women work more than men. |
Ö |
2 | ||||
9. Men are not suited to look after children. |
Ö |
1 | ||||
10. It's natural for girls to want to look after the home. |
Ö |
1 | ||||
11. It's natural for boys to want to look after the home. |
1 | |||||
12. Women should obey their husbands. |
Ö |
1 | ||||
13. Housework is not work. |
Ö |
1 | ||||
14. Men should be expected to help in the home. |
Ö |
1 | ||||
15. Men and women work well together. |
Ö |
3 | ||||
16. Men waste more time than women. |
Ö |
2 | ||||
17. Cash crops should be men's responsibility. |
Ö |
2 | ||||
18. At is natural for boys to want to work with machines. |
Ö |
2 | ||||
19. At is natural for girls to want to work with machines. |
Ö |
2 | ||||
20. Women are not interested in extension activities. |
Ö |
2 |
Total score = 32
Average 32/20 = 1.6
Table 1.1 Economically Active Women in Agriculture
Area |
Women (%) |
Africa |
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-Northern Africa |
38 |
-Sub-Saharan Africa |
79 |
Latin America and Caribbean |
13 |
Asia and Pacific |
|
-Southern Asia |
62 |
-Western Asia |
28 |
-Eastern and S.E Asia and Oceania |
50 |
Source: The World's Women, United Nations 1991
Table 1.2 How the Work is Divided in Africa (percentage of total labour in hours)
Task |
Men |
Women |
Clearing fields |
95 |
5 |
Turning soil |
70 |
30 |
Planting |
50 |
50 |
Hoeing/Weeding |
20 |
80 |
Harvesting |
40 |
60 |
Transportation |
20 |
80 |
Storing |
20 |
80 |
Processing |
10 |
90 |
Marketing |
40 |
60 |
Carrying water, Fuel |
10 |
90 |
Domestic stock |
50 |
50 |
Hunting |
90 |
10 |
Feeding family |
95 |
Source: Women in Community Forestry 1989 FAO
Table 1.3 Labour Distribution in a District of Pakistan (percentage as total number of hours)
Task |
Men |
Women |
Land preparation |
57 |
43 |
Fertilizing |
13 |
87 |
Irrigation |
70 |
30 |
Weeding |
53 |
47 |
Harvesting |
28 |
72 |
Threshing |
68 |
32 |
Orchards |
53 |
47 |
Water collection |
14 |
86 |
Firewood collection |
60 |
40 |
Livestock |
28 |
72 |
Household activities |
14 |
86 |
Adapted from: Khan 1989 in world Bank 1990
Table 1.4 Illiterates Aged 20-24, 1990
Percentage by Region and Gender
Source: The World's Women, United Nations 1991
Women 1
Women 2
Women 3
This Module is intended to give extension workers some practical tools to analyse rural women's activities in their own area. Information about women's responsibilities, daily schedule, access to resources, needs and constraints will help them to plan their activities more effectively.
In the first section of the module, participants will identify those issues which could help them in organizing extension activities targeted at rural women, and which require more investigation. These issues should arise directly from the understanding and awareness they have developed through the first Module.
The second section provides practical information on how to conduct a Gender and Situation Analysis, and covers aspects such as designing the questionnaires and collecting information.
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By the end of the module. participants will: • be able to identify the types of information about women which is needed for extension planning, • be familiar with some Gender and Situation Analysis techniques and be able to plan and carry out a Gender and Situation Analysis survey. |
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Key points examined in the Module are: • information needed by extension workers to work effectively with rural women; • the theory and practice of Gender and Situation Analysis. |
Information
Building on the increased understanding of women's situation and background developed in Module 1, participants should now define the information they would need to work effectively with rural women. In doing this, they will be able to identify the gaps in their present understanding of their target audience which will create a receptive learning situation for understanding the material presented in Section 2.
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To effectively meet local needs and make the most of the opportunities for development, extension services should have a thorough understanding of their target audience. When planning activities aimed at local rural women, a range of information on their specific situation is needed, as well as on the inter-relationship between their tasks and men's tasks. In fact, since women and men have complementary and, often, overlapping tasks and responsibilities, extension workers need to obtain most of the information on both men and women. |
Areas to investigate
Some key areas which require information separated by gender include:
• specific tasks and responsibilities in agricultural production, household and non-farm activities (e.g. crafts, wage labour, trading);
• location of these tasks (e.g. in the field, at what distance from the home, in the household, in the community, outside the community);
• daily and seasonal work schedules of women and men;
• responsibilities and financial obligations (e.g. provision of food, medicines, clothing, school fees) and their income or other sources of providing for these obligations (e.g. home gardens, barter);
• access to resources for both their agricultural and non agricultural work (e.g. credit, tools, technologies) as well as control and decision-making power over the resources;
• access to support services and institutions, governmental and non governmental;
• benefits which would be derived from access to the resources (e.g. increased production and income, time saving in carrying out work) and from control over them (e.g. able to make decisions on what to plant and when, what inputs to buy);
• participation in decision-making at both household and community level;
• participation in local organizations;
• constraints, needs and priorities felt by women (e.g. lack of land title, access to credit, time, access to transport, inputs);
• existing opportunities which could be developed or used further (e.g. existing self-help groups, good loan repayment rates).
Most of the time extension activities are planned without any of the above listed information. This inevitably leads to organization of activities which, at best, only partly meet local needs, and so limit the potential impact of extension work on local development. A major reason for this lack of consideration is the lack of availability of information about these issues.
Only recently has awareness developed of the importance of having information and data separated by gender, i.e. information and data as it applies separately to men and women. Most existing information and data has been gathered considering the household to be a unified group. Experience has shown, however, that since men and women normally have different tasks, responsibilities, and access to resources and constraints, the information regarding these issues cannot all be considered together if women's needs are to be met.
Surveys
Surveys
Surveys are now being redesigned in many countries in order to obtain accurate information about both men and women. However, many surveys still do not obtain information separated by gender and they sometimes fail to include information about women at all. This is not necessarily due to a deliberate decision to ignore women and overlook their role, but is more often an indirect consequence of how surveys are normally designed. Some of the common pitfalls include:
• Surveys often count only income-related work. Many tasks performed by women, which may be vital to the well-being of the family, do not produce an income and so end up being ignored by the survey.
• Surveys often fail to capture the full extent of women's work since they often only count one or two of the many tasks performed in the course of a year, which may vary depending on the season, and even during the course of the day.
• Surveys often look at the household as a unified unit, failing to distinguish between the different tasks, responsibilities, income and obligations of men and women.
• Perceptions and assumptions about rural women also hinder the accuracy of information collected. In many places both men and women hold attitudes that undervalue women's work. Men's work is seen as important and women's work is not recognized as vital to the survival of the household.
Studies on the role of women, their needs and constraints, occasionally exist on a national basis, usually referring to surveys conducted in some selected areas which are considered representative for the whole national situation. Even in these cases, however, more specific information on the local constraints will be needed, to add details relevant to the particular cluster of villages for which the field worker is responsible.
Field extension workers themselves will need to collect the relevant information about women. This should be done in coordination with the other extension officers working in the same area, sharing the information gathered and discussing together possible ways to overcome problems identified.
What Information is Needed?
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Ask participants to get together in pairs and come up with a list of aspects about which they will need to gather information in order to increase the effectiveness of their extension activities with rural women. |
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Discuss the lists in a plenary session. Add the following points if they have not been mentioned: • specific tasks and responsibilities of women and men in agricultural production, household and non-farm activities; • location of these tasks; • daily and seasonal work schedules of women; • financial obligations and income; • access to resources, control and decision-making power over the resources; • access to local support services, both governmental and non governmental; • benefits which would be derived from access to the resources and from control over them; • participation in decision-making at both household and community level; • participation in local organizations; • constraints, needs and priorities as perceived by women; • existing opportunities which could be developed or used further, such as: - informal groups; - meeting places; - skills available; etc. |
Surveys
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Ask participants to get together in small groups and, according to their experiences, discuss some of the following points: • surveys they have conducted; • results of surveys they have used; • reasons why surveys may fail to capture the extent of women's role; • examples of similar situations encountered. |
Following the group discussions invite some of the groups to present their results to the rest of the participants and encourage them to exchange their views and perceptions.
Conversation Between Extension Worker and Farmer
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Invite two of the participants to take part in a role play in front of the rest of the participants. Ask both of them to quickly look at the conversation in Script 2.1. They should then act it out improvising the parts of farmers and extension agent, adding to the script whatever they wish. They might want to add a third character to the role play, for instance the busy wife working in the background. |
Hold a brief discussion at the end of the role play, comparing the situation presented with participants experiences of similar conversations.
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__________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ |
Improving extension work with rural women
By now participants should have realized the direct implications that a better understanding of women's involvement in agriculture, constraints and needs will have in planning effective extension activities.
Through this section you should now show them the practical ways in which they can collect this information. Allocate enough time for the practical exercise to allow them to get some "hands on" experience. Encourage them to discuss any local issues that may represent barriers to conducting interviews and collecting the information required, and help them find ways to overcome them.
Theoretical Aspects
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Gender and Situation Analysis can be used as a common sense organization of information about men and women farmers: their work in agriculture, the household and other activities, their workloads and schedules, their responsibilities and financial obligations, the resources to which they have access, their participation in decision-making and community organizations, the constraints they face and their needs, priorities and opportunities. |
Gender and Situation Analysis looks at the different roles played in societies by men and women and their interactions. Roles played by men and women often have little to do with their capability to carry out a particular task and vary in different societies, according to a number of factors. In some areas men may be responsible for beekeeping, while in other places this is the task of women. In some places, women are in charge of planting; and in other areas, this is men's responsibility.
Gender roles can also vary according to socio-economic status. In some countries women are generally restricted to the household and do not work in the fields or come into contact with men outside the family. However, poor women can be found working at agricultural tasks in the field. Likewise, men and women from landholding families have different roles, responsibilities and resources than men and women from landless families.
What are seen as traditional roles can also change. Many more women are, for instance, becoming heads of households, mostly as a consequence of men migrating to towns in search of better paid employment (see Module I, Section 1). Gender roles can also change with the introduction of new cash crops or improved inputs and technologies. A worsening economic situation can bring women into work which they previously did not do. In other places, improved economic situations bring new aspirations and opportunities and/or the need for additional income to buy goods.
So, even within the same community, these roles may not be the same for all men and women. Gender and Situation Analysis needs to be specific to the particular target group for which the extension activities are meant. If extension work is intended for a range of different social groups in the community, the Gender and Situation Analysis should be carried out for all these different groups.
Gender and Situation Analysis in Practice
Gender and Situation Analysis can be carried out using a range of different methods, according to the time available and to the depth of information required (see Annex 2. 1).
Simple checklists and worksheets can be used to structure the collection of information. The formats presented in this section (see Tables 2.1 to 2.6) are general ones which contain most of the key areas which should be explored in a Gender and Situation Analysis. They should be revised and adjusted in each situation to better fit the specific characteristics of the area under analysis, or the particular focus of the study. Once the worksheets have been revised, the field extension worker should prepare a brief plan on how to carry out the Gender and Situation Analysis. This should include:
• objectives of the study;
• number of households to visit;
• time frame for collecting the interviews and for processing the information.
The analysis should be structured around six different steps:
• Step 1: Who does what
• Step 2: Providing for the family
• Step 3: Resources and benefits
• Step 4: Information flows
• Step 5: Strengths and felt needs
• Step 6: Summarising the results
Step 1: Who Does What
Men working
This initial step of the Gender and Situation Analysis is to identify which types of agricultural work are performed by men and which are performed by women. It should cover not only general sectors but be broken down into the specific component activities of each type of work.
Women working
All the various tasks carried out by men and women in agriculture and agricultural related activities should be listed. Next to each task, who does the work should be stated: men, women or both. When both work on the same task, the relative amount of labour of each should be noted.
It may also be useful to include the involvement of children and youth in the task. If youth and children are the main people who are involved in a task, do they need to be contacted directly through youth programmes, or will it be enough to work through their parents?
Example
Activity |
Who performs it | |||
Children & Youth* |
Women |
Men |
Both Men & Women | |
Crop production |
||||
Crop: MAIZE |
||||
Task: Land preparation |
Ö |
|||
Task: Sowing |
Ö | |||
Task: Transplanting |
Ö |
|||
Task: Weeding |
Ö |
|||
Task: Application of pesticides |
Ö |
|||
Task: Harvesting |
Ö |
Ö |
||
Task: Storage |
Ö |
|||
Task: Shelling |
Ö |
Ö |
||
Task: Milling |
Ö |
|||
Task: Packaging |
Ö |
|||
Task: Transport to market |
Ö | |||
Task Selling |
Ö |
|||
Crop: CASSAVA |
||||
Task: Land preparation |
Ö |
|||
Task: Sowing |
Ö |
|||
Task: Transplanting |
Ö |
Ö |
||
Task: Weeding |
Ö |
|||
Task: Application of pesticides |
||||
Task: Harvesting |
Ö |
|||
Task: Storage |
Ö |
|||
Task: Processing/Packaging |
Ö |
|||
Task: Transport to market |
Ö | |||
Task: Selling |
Ö |
|||
etc. |
||||
* Children and youth here refer to whatever ages are considered as children and youth in the particular society being studied, i.e. all those not yet considered as full adults by the society. The age range varies considerably in different societies.
Example
Activity |
Who performs it | |||
Children & Youth* |
Women |
Men |
Both Men & Women | |
Animal production |
||||
Animal: GOATS |
||||
Task: Feeding |
Ö |
|||
Task: Care |
Ö |
|||
Task: Milking |
Ö |
Ö | ||
Task: Slaughter |
Ö |
|||
Task: Transport to market |
Ö |
|||
Task: Selling meat |
Ö |
|||
Task: Selling milk |
||||
Task: Selling hides |
||||
Animal: CHICKENS |
||||
Task: Feeding |
Ö |
|||
Task: Care |
Ö |
|||
Task: Collecting eggs |
Ö |
|||
Task: Slaughter |
Ö |
|||
Task: Transport to market |
Ö |
|||
Task: Selling chicks |
Ö |
|||
Task: Selling eggs |
||||
etc. |
||||
Information should be gathered as to the amount of labour and time spent on the activities each day and during the year:
• Are the tasks seasonal, occasional, recurring regularly or daily?
• Which activities involve particularly heavy workloads at certain times and when do these occur?
It is also useful to collect data on the location where the tasks are performed: in fields close to the household and/or community, at some distance from the community, near the household, in the home, etc.
This information can be listed on the worksheets next to the activities and who performs them.
The same procedure should be followed for household tasks as well as for non-farm work and activities.
Example
Activity |
Who performs it |
When |
Where |
Food preparation |
Women |
3 times a clay for 3 hours daily |
at home |
Water collection |
Women |
2 hours daily |
water pump 3 km from home |
Firewood collection |
Women and Children |
3 hours daily |
forest 5 km from home |
Roof repair |
Men |
when needed (twice a near) |
home |
Selling produce |
Women |
weekly |
market 5 km from home |
Repairing fish nets |
Women |
once a week 2 hours |
home |
etc. |
This information will give the extension worker a picture of the work carried out by the different members of the community. It will give an idea of the amount of time men and women spend on their tasks and where these are located in relation to where they live.
This is a first step in learning about gender related needs, problems, constraints and opportunities. With this information the extension worker may already have an idea of what are the most pressing needs of men and women farmers and what possible problems exist.
Further analysis of who is responsible for providing different family and household needs will help complete the picture.
Step 2: Providing for the Family
Men and women are usually responsible for providing for different needs for their families and households. Though in some cases ail household income from both men and women is pooled, in many places this does not happen. Information needs to be gathered on what men and women provide for the family as well as where the income or other means come from to provide for these needs.
Example
Family needs |
Who is responsible |
Means to provide for it |
Food |
Women |
-family plot. income from sale of produce |
Clothing |
Women |
-cloth is bought with women's income |
Medicines |
Men |
-men's income |
School fees |
Women |
|
etc. |
This information indicates to the extension worker where more income or other means may be necessary to improve the well-being of the household. It is also important to know whether the introduction of new crops, activities or sources of income to either men or women is going to have any negative or positive implications on the resources available to provide for family needs.
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In one country of Central America, men and women were both responsible for growing food crops. Cash crops were then introduced and training activities were aimed just at men. Women, who were responsible for providing food for their families, faced difficulties in no longer having men's help in growing subsistence food crops. Cash crop cultivation increased men's income but, as they were not financially responsible for providing food to the family. it was not used to supplement the family food. This remained the work and responsibility of the women, but with less assistance from the men for the same work. |
Step 3: Resources and Benefits
With the above information, extension workers can get an idea of:
• what work both men and women perform;
• the amount of time it takes them each day and how the amount of time varies by season;
• the location of the work;
• the responsibilities and financial obligations of both men and women.
Land
The picture would not be complete, however, without collecting some data on the following aspects:
• resources men and women have at their disposal to carry out their work;
• who controls these resources and/or has decision-making power about their use; benefits that men and women gain as a result of their access to, control over, and use of the resources.
Resources include land, inputs, equipment, irrigation, sources of water and fuel. They also include access to hired labour or mutual help, credit and inputs. Memberships in groups and organizations, such as cooperatives, mutual help groups and savings groups, are also considered as resources.
However, having access to a resource is not the same as having control over it, or being able to make decisions about it. Different kinds of benefits are derived from the use and control over resources.
Example
Resource |
Who has access |
Who controls |
Benefits and use |
Land |
men |
men |
- cash crops |
-cash for consumer goods equipment and hired labour | |||
- collateral for credit | |||
women |
men |
- crops for family food | |
- crops for sale | |||
- cash used for household goods and school fees | |||
Animal traction |
men |
men |
- ability, to plant larger land area |
- time savings | |||
Water well |
women/men |
women |
- clean water for household |
- time saving | |||
Savings group |
women |
women |
- access to small loans |
For example, farmers may have access to fond but not own it. This would limit their possibilities in choosing how to use it and limits the range of benefits that could be derived from it.
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In village A, women farmers have access to the land but do not own it The benefits they derive are crops which they use partly to provide food for their families and partly for sale. From the sale of the crops they get cash with which they are expected to buy household goods and pay for school fees. In the same village, men have both access to and control over the land as holders of the title to the land. The benefits they get from the land use are crops which they sell. |
They use the cash to invest in equipment, to buy consumer goods, and to hire labour to work in their fields. In addition, as owners of the land, they can decide to plant crops with cycles that extend over several seasons (e.g. tree crops). They can also decide other long term use of the land and use it as collateral for credit.
Not all resources are tangible. Access to credit, or membership in an organization are, for instance, important resources which are less obvious. They should also be considered during the survey.
In some places, for example, only male heads of households are admitted to membership in farmers' cooperatives. One of the main benefits of membership is access to credit and training.
In other places, women are members of savings groups and/or mutual help groups from which they derive the opportunity to take up small loans or exchange labour.
Step 4: Information Flows
To plan effective extension activities, extension workers need to carry out some more investigations on women's channels of communications. The following information should be gathered through informal interviews and discussions:
• who influences what decisions;
• who do they ask advice from and for what;
- e.g. who do they ask about child-care/agricultural/health problems
• who attends formal and informal meetings;
- e.g. do they go to community/extension/school meetings (and if not, why)
• meeting places;
• what instructional and information material reaches the household (e.g. extension pamphlets, local paper) and who reads it;
• etc.
Step 5: Strengths and Felt Needs
While conducting the Gender and Situation Analysis interviews, it is important to also note all the relevant points which may emerge more casually from discussion regarding, for instance:
• existing strengths and skills (e.g. literacy, ability to operate a certain machine, etc.). If the extension worker is aware of these it will be easier to build on them.
• felt needs and constraints, as seen by the women.
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In rural Myanmar, women did not see deforestation itself as a problem but felt as a constraint simply the fact that they have to spend more and more time walking to get fuelwood. This was not directly associated with deforestation. Using this information to plan an extension campaign, promoting new efficient stoves proved to be very useful, since it meant that a message, "Save trees - buy this stove", would have far less appeal than, "Save time - buy this stove". |
Step 6: Summarising the Results
Using the information collected so far, field workers can chart the major constraints and problems faced by men and women farmers.
The activities analysis (step I) will show whether or not women farmers face time constraints.
From the resources analysis (steps 2 and 3), it will be possible to decide whether or not access to a specific resource is a constraint.
Through the interview/discussion with the various farmers, additional opportunities may be seen for extension work with rural women.
All the relevant issues should be summarized, which could have implications for household food security and income from agriculture (production, storage and marketing) and hence implications for extension work. It might be useful to group the issues under the following headings:
• production constraints and problems;
• storage constraints and problems;
• marketing constraints and problems;
• extension service problems (e.g. wrong time/duration for meetings, lack of child care, mixed meetings not allowed, information not relevant to farmers' needs).
This summary could then be shown to farmers which were involved in the Gender and Situation Analysis, to discuss whether it represents a fair picture of the situation. If the discussion is held in mixed groups, it is important to ensure that women farmers have the opportunity to express their views and comments. The summary of problems and constraints should then be amended to include any relevant issues previously overlooked.
Once the table has been finalized, it should serve as a basis for planning extension activities for the area.
Note: The picture gained by the Gender and Situation Analysis. will represent the situation at the time the information has been collected. However, things change through time, new problems may develop, or a new opportunity may emerge. The best results will be achieved when field workers look at this process as on-going, constantly updating the information as the situation changes.
Gathering Information
The simplest and easiest way to gather the information needed is through individual or group interviews and discussions. A number of other methods could also be used, according to the time and resources available, as well as the amount of details required. A list of possible methods to use in collecting information is shown in Annex 2.1: Methods of Data Collection for Gender Analysis.
When group approaches are used, it is often preferable to meet with groups of women separately from men to ensure an uninhibited discussion. When there are several different social classes or groups in the community, it might also be preferable to interview different groups separately.
When conducting the interviews, a number of points should be considered, to ensure the interviewer manages to collect the information wanted and to ensure respect for the interviewee. For example, the interviewer should:
• choose an adequate location for the interview, e.g. big enough to accommodate comfortably all participants and ensure everyone can hear what is being discussed;
• wear appropriate clothing, for example an official uniform should not be worn for an informal discussion;
• introduce him/herself, explain the objectives of the meeting;
• begin the interview with issues familiar to the audience and leave more sensitive ones for later (prepare a suitable sequence in advance);
• follow a logical order as far as possible rather than just asking random questions;
• ask open questions, i.e. questions which could not be answered with a "yes" or a "no". Answers should also not be suggested in the question (e.g. ask "What could improve your farming situation?" not "Is lack of access to small loans a constraint for your farming activities?");
• follow up answers given with "why?" "who?" "what?" "where?" "when?" "how?" to gain more information
(however, the interviewer should not dominate the interview, it is the interviewee's answers which are important);
• avoid writing endless notes during the interview but, instead, write up a short report of the interview immediately afterwards, before key issues are forgotten;
• finish by thanking the interviewee/s.
Individual interviews and discussions.
Thanking the interviewee/s
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Practice Interview "Participant to Participant" |
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Ask participants to get together in pairs. They should run a Gender and Situation Analysis of their partner's household situation, taking turns at being the interviewer and the interviewee. Ask them to concentrate on the interviewee's situation within the household, considering one of the components of Gender and Situation Analysis, and try to prepare a summary table on constraints to improving the household income. Hand out copies of Table (2.1 - 2.6) and explain how they are used. |
The exercise should give the interviewer the opportunity to practice interviewing skills. It should also help them understand how the interviewee feels when asked questions about his/her personal situation by a near stranger.
A Poor Interview
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