As the world prepares to observe International Women’s Day on 8 March, FAO gender and social protection expert Dono Abdurazakova sheds light on why rural women in Eastern Europe and Central Asia are key to the region’s economic puzzle.

We’re fifteen years into the new millennium. How are rural women faring in this region?

From Central Asia’s cotton fields to the orchards of Moldova and the South Caucasus, rural women are working harder than ever to cope with the challenges of life in this region. Most are actively working in agriculture to earn a decent livelihood—not just in their backyard plots but out in the fields, raising livestock and cultivating and harvesting crops.

Long hours on the farm are compounded by the daily work of caring for the families, such as cooking, cleaning, and looking after children, the sick and the elderly.  Given that rural areas usually have poor infrastructure with limited access to water and fuel, women may see their workload double or even triple.

The problem is that rural women tend to find themselves in low-paid, seasonal, and often informal work. This can mean life-long vulnerability when it comes to socioeconomic security. For instance, a rural woman may work hard throughout her life but find herself with only a minimal pension, or none at all, by the time she reaches retirement age.

Unfortunately, society is exacerbating the hardship on rural women by taking their work for granted, and by addressing the ‘gender gap’ in rural development with a threadbare safety net. What we all need to realize is that the burden on rural women is actually a burden on everyone in the community.

So if rural women are struggling, entire rural communities are struggling?

Exactly. FAO data show that if women farmers have the same access to resources as men, agricultural productivity improves across the board: production could increase by 20 to 30 percent, raising the total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5 to 4 percent, which in turn would reduce the number of undernourished people in the world by 12 to 17 percent.

While the governments in Europe and Central Asia have begun to work on gender discrimination issues in property ownership, inheritance and transfer, the evidence so far still points to lower access to land, resources, and investment for women. In some countries of the region, no more than 17 percent of agricultural enterprises are registered under women’s names. Women also have far less access to arable land and technology, and typically earn 70 percent or less of the average male income. As a result, women’s entrepreneurship is usually limited to small businesses with few employees, low start-up capital requirements, and few opportunities to expand.

How did rural women reach this point?

There is a bulk of evidence that says the transition from centrally planned economies to the free market contributed to the growth of gender inequality in the post-Soviet region, with rural women being among the most disadvantaged. They lost a number of social protection benefits associated with the socialist system and are now over-represented among the unemployed.

When we consider poverty as more than a lack of income and financial resources, we see that women also lost equal rights, political voice, decent employment, and access to information, services, infrastructure and natural resources. Even with reforms, the growing private sector has failed to give women a fair shot at starting a business, owning property, or accessing credit.

This has led to the “feminization of poverty” in Europe and Central Asia. Compared to men, women are disproportionately represented among the poor in almost every respect. Although the Gender Inequality Index—a global ranking calculated on the basis of women’s reproductive health, empowerment and economic status—remains relatively high for most countries in this region, it doesn’t reflect all aspects of gender-based discrimination. For example, the region’s prevailing patriarchal view towards women’s rights is stifling further progress.

Haven’t rural women benefitted from labour migration?  

In Central Asia, the available data reveal that women are migrating out of the region more than ever before. Most notably, more women are migrating independently in search of better jobs, as opposed to joining male family members abroad.

Rural women may migrate for a number of reasons. It could be a chance to save their household from poverty, to escape a violent relationship, or to find opportunities that simply do not exist in their home country. But migrant women are still marginalized with low-status occupations, poor working conditions, low wages, and no social protection. They are particularly vulnerable to discrimination, violence, and exploitation—in the worst cases, they can fall victim to human trafficking, a significant problem in this region.

When male members of a rural household migrate, there are a number of problems for the family left behind. Remittances may arrive irregularly or cease entirely, a desperate situation that may force wives and mothers to seek a more stable source of income in an employment market that can be unfriendly towards women.

Although labour migration creates de facto female-headed households, rural women may find themselves even more powerless at home than before. As marriages in Central Asia are “patrilocal,” many wives are left in the care of their husband’s parents, who usually control how remittances are spent. Some long-term male migrants start parallel families abroad, gradually decreasing their remittances and or completely abandoning their families at home. A recent phenomenon in Tajikistan is long-distance divorce by phone and text messages, a practice that seemed to become so widespread that Tajik human rights groups had to approach authorities to outlaw the practice.

Looking ahead, what can governments do to give rural women better opportunities?

This year, International Women’s Day is focusing on the progress women have made since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action on gender equality was signed in 1995. Every government in this region, without exception, regularly reports on the progress it has achieved in implementing the Beijing principles, which recognize the important role that rural women play in their nations. But even in the year 2015, women in Eastern Europe and Central Asia still face inordinate challenges in their everyday lives.

Above all, rural women need and deserve equal access to natural resources, including land, pastures, fisheries, forests, and water. Equal access to services is equally important—everything from financial, legal, and marketing services to agricultural education and child care can make women and rural communities stronger.

Countries can also embrace women’s organizations that allow women to amplify their voice and share their practical perspective on political and economic decisions. By including women in the decision-making process, they can help make sure that everyone—men and women—have decent rural employment opportunities, both on and off the farm.

6 March, 2015, Budapest, Hungary