Posted December 2000

Visibility of the role of rural women through an analysis of gender-disaggregated census data

Marie Randriamamonjy
Chief, Women in Development Service
Women and Population Division
FAO, Rome

The first National Census in China introduced interesting innovation by including consideration of socio-economic factors along with the classical data on agricultural holding and agricultural production. Gender-disaggregated data are available in key areas such as education and labour force. They reveal a trend towards feminization and ageing of rural population. This preoccupying situation is compounded by a still high rate of illiteracy among women, their low access to educational facilities and to off-farm activities.

Basic information is provided on social infrastructure. But the results of the census are far from being fully exploited and more in-depth studies and analyses are needed to capture the gender dimension of rural and agricultural population in China. Some recommendations are offered to improve the agricultural census process and methods for a better understanding of the dynamics of rural society and subsequent accurate planning of a more sustainable agricultural and socio-economic development of rural areas.

Introduction

Since 1975 at the First World Conference on Women in Mexico, and later on the whole series of global conferences on social issues, stressed the importance of generating, disseminating and using gender-disaggregated data and information as key elements for development planning and evaluation. These actions contribute, in particular, towards making the roles and situations of women more visible and hopefully more recognized and valued.

The First National Census of Agriculture in China is a major undertaking, unprecedented by its size and extent in terms of number of items addressed, the impact of which could go beyond the boundaries of the country itself. One of the most interesting aspects is the investigation on the basic conditions of rural economy and social development.

Among the 10 main items addressed by the Census, two are directly related to the socio-economic context for agricultural activities. It concerns the rural labour force and the community environment and infrastructure. The rural market and finance issues are also addressed to reflect the volume and the flow of economic activities supporting agricultural production.

This paper analyses the following aspects:

1. What are the main results of the agricultural census in China from the gender perspectives;
2. What are the areas which are not addressed by the exercise while they are of key importance for rural women's empowerment or gender mainstreaming;
3. Recommendations on how to improve the agricultural census process and methodology to better capture the reality of rural women in general.

1. Main results of the chinese agricultural census

From the gender perspective, the most interesting innovation of this first agricultural census conducted in 1997, is certainly the inclusion of the consideration of the basic conditions of rural economy and some pertinent socio-economic factors. Undoubtedly, policy makers and planners can find in the huge amount of data, useful and accurate elements for decision-making. This effort is even more valuable given the fact that, by definition, traditional agricultural censuses collect data on the agricultural holding with a focus on production, more specifically on harvests, livestock and agricultural inputs, leaving aside the human factors.

As a basic concept, it has to be realized that mainstreaming gender in statistics is not an end by itself. It is a tool to combat poverty and hunger and aims at empowering the poor, in particular women, ethnic minorities and indigenous populations. The analysis of the main findings of the agricultural census in China will then be carried out in that broader perspective, underlining the gender dimension of it. It will cover in particular two facets: participation in decision-making and access to productive resources. The list of tables where data disaggregated by sex can be found directly is given in Annex 1.

The following are the main socio-demographic features of the Chinese rural society. They will help in the understanding of the main issues as they relate to gender perspectives.

In general, data are collected for 3 types of agricultural enterprises:

• in all holdings;
• non-household holdings;
• household holdings.

Household holdings represent 99.8% of all holdings, compared to 0.2% for non-holding (state, collective, cooperative, private and individual, joint venture). Therefore, the main interest of this document is on household holdings where the majority of women can be found. However, whenever needed, reference will be made to the other categories of units.

Points from Table 1:

• About half a billion people are engaged in economic activities on some 193 million holdings.
• The total number of persons engaged in economic activities on these holdings is about equally divided between males and females; males make up about 53% of the total while women make up about 47%.
• The average number of persons per holding is 2.7 persons, 1.4 males and 1.3 females.

From the table of Annex II the following remarks are put forward to show the main characteristics of the Chinese rural society:

• Of the 561 million persons over 7 years of age living in rural households who engage in some form of economic activity, about 53% are male and 47% are female
• With the exception of non-household holdings, the proportion of males to females ranges from 52/48% in agricultural households to 55/45% in non-agricultural households
• In households living on holdings that they do not own, 63% of males engage in economic activities while only about 37% of females do, a gap of about 26%
• This gap is nearly the same for these households as regards the percentages of males and females engaging in agricultural activities; 63% for males and 37% for females
• On household holdings, where 98% of those engaging in agriculture reside, more females (52%) engage in agricultural activities than males (48%)
• Many more males over 7 years of age engage in non-agricultural activities than do females. In rural households, 67% of those engaged in non-agricultural activities are male; the percentage rises to 73% in the agricultural household category
• Females comprise between 33-45% of those engaged in non-agricultural activities in the various categories.

This aspect is quite well covered by the agricultural census. Actually gender-disaggregated data are available in the following areas:

• economically active population in all agricultural holdings and in the two main categories of holdings, household and non household;
• the number of farming people having received a training in agriculture.

Points from Table 2:

Among the population engaged in agriculture:

• There are more males than females (Number of men = 110% of the number of females)
• Nearly 91% of males engaged in agriculture have attained some level of education, compared to nearly 81% of females
• Nearly 20% of females engaged in agricultural activities are illiterate; there are twice as many illiterate females as males
• About half of females have had some form of primary education; 77% have received education up to either primary or junior middle school
• There are significantly more males than females in all education categories; as education level goes up, the proportion of males increases dramatically.

Data on "all holdings" show that the absolute number of males is superior to the number of females. They represent respectively 53% and 47% of the economically active population.

Points from Table 3:

• On household holdings, about 519 million persons are engaged in economic activities; the percentage of males is about 52% and females is 48%
• Of this population, about 15% are reported to be illiterate or semi-literate; 66% of these are female
• About twenty-one percent of all economically-active females on household holdings are reported as illiterate or semi-literate; 48% of all females on holdings have had some form of primary education and 30% have attended junior middle school
• The proportion of females who have received some form of higher education is very low
• Females make up a decreasing proportion of economically-active persons as one goes up the educational ladder
• The proportion of males and females having acquired primary education is virtually the same (approximately 52% female, 48% male), but the percentage of females in the educational categories drops sharply from primary to junior middle school (37%) and declines to about 21% for the college and above category.

In the non household holdings, about 8.5 million persons are engaged in economic activities. The percentage of males is about 64% and 36% for females. The proportion of illiterates is markedly lower 8% against 15%. Here also the number of females who have received higher education is very low (0.9%).

Points from Table 4:

• On non-household holdings, 69% are primary technicians, 25% are junior and about 6% are senior
• Male technicians comprise 80% of the total, females 20% (=> better males access to higher education?)
• Of the grand total, nearly half are male primary technicians, 21% are male junior and about 15% are female primary
• Female junior and senior technicians make up about 5% of the grand total.

A study carried out in 1992 by the Women's studies Institute of all China Women's federation shows higher figures than in tables 2 and 3: 30.9% for women illiterate and 11.5% for men. Disparities between rural and urban areas are also high. The same study reveals that there is a difference of 32.2% between the number of literate urban and rural dwellers in the age-group 20-24 and of 46.7% in the age group 40-44.

A study carried out by UNESCO (2000) in the 9 most populated areas in the World shows that in China women remain the major educating force in society. It concluded also that there is a strong evidence of the "exclusion of women from mainstream education due to several factors including the religious, cultural and social ideologies which affect women's empowerment". They are still facing several barriers in traditional, patriarchal societies: many practices and beliefs ignore the rights of women and girls, principally the right to education.

In addition to basic characteristics by region, the Chinese agricultural census provides detailed agricultural labour force data, disaggregated by sex, into two main categories:

• members of rural households and agricultural holdings
• hired workers.

Points from Table 5:

• On the Household holdings, about 519 million persons are reported to be engaged in economic activities
• Of these, 52% are male, 48% are female, (as opposed to 47% in all holdings)
• The percentages of males and females per age category show interesting patterns:
  • There are about 16% more females than males engaged in economic activities in the 7-15 year category (it would appear that as young girls are put to work, females enter the workforce earlier. It is interesting to know if this is related to low levels of education/schooling for females)
  • In the 16-17 year category, the excess of females in the workforce drops to about 4%
  • In the 18-50 age categories, the number of males exceeds the number of female by 4%
  • Above 50 years working males exceeds females by 8-16% with the percentage increasing

Points from Table 6:

• The approximately 2.4 million households hiring workers employ on average 4.6 workers per household
• Hired workers are either permanent (~60% of total) or occasional (~40% of total)
• Approximately 36% of all hired workers are female (~37% of permanent, ~35%of occasional)

Points from Table 7:

• The nearly 1.4 million non-agricultural enterprises in towns and townships employ about 53 million people for an average of nearly 38 persons per enterprise
• Of this average, there are about 25 males (24.6) employed per enterprise and 13 females (13.3)
• Men make up about 65% of the total number of persons employed while women make up about 35%

The above data confirm the situation illustrated earlier as regards the higher proportion of women engaged in on-farm agricultural activities.

As regards the educational facilities, the current situation reflects the tremendous efforts developed by China during the last decades for universal access to education: 64.2% of rural population have access to primary school and 1.6% to middle school. According to a World Bank Study the drop out rate among girls decreased from 20 to 0 percent of the age group in primary school and from 46 to 35 percent in the secondary schools. Moreover, 26.6% of population have access to kindergarten and nursery which is a relatively good performance and facilitates a great deal the life and working conditions of women in rural areas.

Health care infrastructure is good as 68.2% of villages have a health center and 76.7% have a rural doctor. The average is 1.5 doctor per village.

The majority of the villages (96%) and of rural population (97.6%) have access to electricity. 42.3% of villages are within the distance range of 2.5 km from an urban center and 22.1% in the range 5-10 km. 87.4% of them are accessible by road vehicles.

Only 17.4% of the villages have access to tap water. Therefore, 67% of the households are using wells for their domestic needs and drinking water. As regards the energy for cooking and heating, 68% of households are using firewood.

II. Areas which are not or are insufficiently addressed by the Chinese agricultural census

Because of the scope and objectives of the agricultural census, as well as its coverage, there are some unavoidable limitations in the list of data and information which can be collected. Cross-reference or cross tabulation with data from other sources are very often required to obtain meaningful information.

However, better utilization of data from the agricultural census could or should also contribute to the improvement of the knowledge base in the following areas:

FAO recognizes that two areas remain insufficiently covered by current statistics. They are: food security and the eradication of poverty for which the following indicators are urgently needed:

• A clearer understanding of household characteristics, especially factors of poverty and access to and allocation of household resources (human, physical and time);
• The extent of male and female participation in economic, social and political decision-making.

Some complementary measures, such as time-use survey and household resource allocation, are recommended to ensure a better coverage of the above aspects.

In China, human poverty has decreased significantly in the last four and half decades with some slowing down of the process in late 1980s and early 1990s. However, the impact of poverty reduction policy became greater by mid-1996 when the people living below the poverty line had fallen to 65 million from 94 million in 1991. It would be interesting to have data disaggregated by sex on the rural poor, as well as on the level of rural incomes and rural wages.

According to statistics published by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, women in China hold 21.8% in the Lower House in 1997-1998. In the government, there are 6.1% women at ministerial level and 3.9% at sub-ministerial level. In total, the female representation in the national legislative bodies was 4.3% in 1994.

This type of information is not meant to be included in the agricultural census. Nevertheless it is important to know how, or to what extent, women participate in the political life of the country and in the decision-making process at the highest level. Of key importance also is their participation, both in local government and in rural organizations and data on this would be more relevant for the agricultural censuses.

The Government of China has made great efforts to improve the legal environment conducive to women's empowerment. Legal provisions include marriage laws, the inheritance law, the labour law, the law of maternal and childcare and the women's workers and employees labour protection regulations.

The status of Chinese women has been raising steadily in terms of their role in the family and in society and in their participation in the management of national affairs.

Access to resources is an important element of empowerment. Men and women tend to have different access to inputs and production factors and tend to benefit differently from the output of, and income from, their labour. This important aspect is constantly overlooked in permanent and periodic data collection efforts and should receive due consideration because of its impact on productivity, income and bargaining power within the household. Resources include: land, credit, training and extension services, technology and labour.

The agricultural census (abstract) gives very interesting macro data on household holdings use of lands by type of agricultural activities, by type of permanent crops and type of woodland. More in-depth analysis is needed to determine how the responsibilities and benefits are allocated within the household.

Here also a detailed farming system analysis along with time-use surveys and seasonal calendar study by sex would help understand the dynamics of the production activities, the labour force and resource allocations and ultimately the distribution of the benefits.

Additional surveys or analysis of existing data are needed to have information disaggregated by sex.

It is well-known that access to technology is heavily gender-biased and has a bearing on household member's productivity.

Usually there is a strict division of labour within the household both for the type of activity and the care given to animals. From the questionnaire and the results of the census it is difficult to know if the traditional pattern applies in China: large animals for men and small animals for women and children. They do not show either what type of operations are performed by whom in a specific production activity. Equally important is the knowledge of the decision-making process in all steps: choice of the activity and technology to be used, marketing, distribution and use of the income.

Such data are needed for the design of a more client-oriented extension programme and of a participatory agricultural development policy.

III. Recommendations on how to improve the agricultural census from gender perspectives

The Government of China in undertaking this first Agricultural Census has laid down the foundation of a modern statistical system, which will allow the formulation of a long-term rural development strategy. It has adopted international criteria, definitions and practices which were adapted to the national rural statistical survey system.

The following recommendations are offered to facilitate the full exploitation of existing data both from the agricultural census and from other sources.

In general, by stipulating a minimum size for the traditional agricultural holding, the agricultural census does not provide an accurate estimate of women's contribution to development since many women are engaged in these small-scale production units. Therefore, the census fails to mirror the reality of the agricultural sector by excluding small farmers and classifying small farm households as non-agricultural. This limitation is common to many agricultural censuses.

Including a gender perspective in the agricultural census will bring into light some prevailing social and cultural patterns of agricultural and rural development, which have impacts on the livelihood of households and their internal work distribution and resource allocation. It will also highlight the interactions between various stakeholders, while helping to identify the causes and effects of production activities.

Along these lines, FAO recommends a five steps approach in data production:

1. Identification of gender issues and their implications for social improvement;
2. Identification of gender relevant data;
3. Reviewing existing sources;
4. Improving existing sources and developing new data collection programmes;
5. Data compilation, analysis, presentation and dissemination by specific user group.

In most cases the thrust of the development planning and information system has been on physical growth of goods and services and overall welfare. Social concerns like the role of women in the development process have largely been given a secondary status in preparing national programmes dealing with raising the standard of living and productivity. It needs to be realized that:

• Although women are involved in the development process, many aspects of their involvement differ from those of men: total hours worked, the kind of work undertaken, rates of pay, age of participation in the labour force, domestic responsibilities, work hazards, etc.
• Job segregation and wage discrimination against women persist;
• Women have less access to training, capital, land and the new information technologies.

Conclusions

This agricultural census in China is very timely in this period of opening policy paralleled with economic reform initiated by the Government, in particular in the agricultural sector. Including gender dimension in the new policies initiated in the late 1990s, has the potential to increase the economic and social returns of the huge investment in that sector.

It offers a sound knowledge base of the current status of agriculture and rural development in China. In addition to the information on agricultural production and production factors, data on socio-economic parameters are very useful to understand the overall environment in which agricultural activities are taking place. Gender-disaggregated data are provided for key areas such as education and labour force. Indicators on access to basic infrastructure, in particular in the household, give also an overview of living conditions in rural areas. Besides, the overall results of the census certainly provide a good scientific basis for further research or may serve as valuable elements for the formulation and planning of agricultural and rural development programmes. As regards gender, they will facilitate a better targeting of the audience of training and extension activities. However, some additional surveys and studies (such as socio-anthropological studies, values and attitude surveys, market analysis and feasibility studies, access to land and credit) are needed to get a fuller picture of the gender dimension of development, using the foundation already laid. The suggested improvement as regards gender perspectives can build upon it to capture the reality of rural areas while meeting at the same time the international standard. The planned arrangement for the follow-up to this first agricultural census is a guarantee for the institutionalization of the system with the full participation of the government's leaders at various administrative levels down to the grass root organizations. It is expected that gender perspectives will permeate the process all the way through with the necessary adaptation. Actually, the identification of gender issues for statistical treatment requires ongoing and permanent dialogue between producers and users.

The Governments of China should be aware of the fact that by addressing the issue of gender equality, it will also touch upon those of labour force dynamics and development, productivity and poverty. Furthermore, improving gender statistics is part of a strategy to create an enabling environment for improving food security and achieving sustainable development.

Bibliography

1. Bahman Mansuri. 1999. Conference on Hunger and Poverty. An overview.
2. Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). 2000. Country Report 2000 - The Economist.
3. FAO. 1992a. Report on the Inter-agency Consultation on Statistics and data bases on gender in Agriculture and Rural Development - 24-26 September 1991. Rome, Italy.
4. FAO. 1992b. Improving gender-disaggregated data on human resources through agricultural census. Economic and social development paper no. 8. FAO Statistical development service. Rome, Italy.
5. FAO. 1995. Programme for the World Census of Agriculture 2000. Statistical development series No. 5. Rome, Italy.
6. FAO. 1996. Conducting agricultural censuses and surveys - FAO statistical development series no. 6. Rome, Italy.
7. FAO. 1999. Filling the data gap: gender-sensitive statistics for agricultural development. Rome, Italy.
8. FAO. 1999b. Agricultural censuses and gender considerations: Concepts and methodology. Rome, Italy.
9. FAO. 2000. FAOSTAT - Statistical data base. Rome, Italy.
10. National Agricultural Census Office of China. 1999. Food and Agricultural Statistics Centre - Abstract of the First National Agricultural Census in China. - China.
11. United Nations, Department of Public Information. 1996a. Platform for action and the Beijing declaration. Fourth World Conference on Women. Beijing, China, 4-15 September 1995. USA
12. UN Follow-up activities of China to the Fourth World Conference on Women. 1996b. Division for the Advancement of Women. Material provided by the Chinese government. New York. USA
13. UNDP. 1998. Human development report. 1998, New York. USA (1998)
14. UNESCO. 2000. Women as educators and women's education in E-9 countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan). Paris, France.
15. Women's studies Institute of all China Women's Federation. 1995. A Review of the Social status of Women in China. New World Press. China
16. World Bank. 2000. Gender country profile, China. Washington, USA.

Annex I

Readily available data in the Chinese agricultural census disaggregated by sex:

• Rural households, Agricultural holdings and hired workers;
• Number of persons aged 7 years and over engaged in economic, agricultural and non- agricultural activities by type of households and sex;
• Rural households: number of rural households by region - number of persons by sex and region, number of students at school by region.
• Rural households: number of persons aged 7 years and over engaged in economic activities by sex;
• Educational level and region;
• Rural households: basic information on hired workers by region;
• All-holdings: basic characteristics by region;
• All holdings: number of persons aged 7 years and over engaged in economic activities by sex, age, group and region;
• All holdings: number of persons aged 7 years and over engaged in economic activities by sex, educational level and region;
• Non-household holdings: number of persons engaged in agricultural activities by sex, educational level and region.
• Non-household holdings: persons engaged in agricultural activities by type of technician, sex and region.

Annex II