Smallholder farmers generally face many challenges. However, women smallholders face multiple constraints beyond those of men farmers. Women tend to be invisible to policy makers because they are not seen as ‘productive’ farmers. They often are expected to provide unpaid farm work, and bear a disproportionate burden of care and reproductive roles within the family and community. They are deprived of access to markets, key assets, and inputs, and are frequently excluded from decision-making. And women are even disproportionately impacted by poverty and hunger - including having less access to education and health care facilities. These multiple constraints mean that agricultural policies targeting women need to be different from those that have historically targeted men. First and foremost, policy makers must start recognizing women farmers and their multiple roles, and ensure that well-funded and well managed programs specifically target women farmers. Donors and international institutions have taken a renewed interest in both agriculture and smallholders recently, especially in Africa, but women farmers continue to be systematically neglected by agricultural policies. Some governments are promoting women farmers (e.g., through specific gender policies, or separate gender units in Ministries of Agriculture), but such moves remain too rare.