Hos Salop’s days always began very early. She would cook breakfast for her husband and her three-year-old grandchild before working on her family farm in the village of Pongro in northwest Cambodia. She collected vegetables, fed the chickens and a pig, cleaned her house and dropped her grandchild off at school, all before heading to her full-time day job as a civil servant and member of the Ta Phou commune council. Even though this job generates much-needed additional income for her family, her husband, Day Deat, a smallholder farmer himself, used to be against her working there.

In rural Cambodia, it has been traditionally inappropriate for women to work outside their homes. These deep-rooted social norms result in discrimination and marginalization of rural women, limiting their access to education, resources, employment opportunities and participation in decision-making processes.

At work at the council, Salop found that she could be confident and assertive, but she felt unable to do so at home. When faced with her husband’s remonstrations, she chose to remain silent.

On top of household tensions due to her employment outside of the home, Salop and Deat were racking up huge losses on their farm as flashfloods were devastating their crops. In 2021, for example, they spent approximately USD 2 500 to cultivate cassava but with no returns. This dire situation forced the couple to re-think their livelihoods options and look for alternative solutions.