.png?sfvrsn=55dc5ba6_1 "fa (3)")
Economic and social empowerment
Enhancing women’s access to economic resources, decent work, and entrepreneurship opportunities, and addressing social norms that limit their participation in food systems.
Focus area three covers three distinct areas separately, as follows:
Women’s access to the labor market and decent work. Women in agriculture often work in informal, unsafe, part-time and low-paid jobs with limited protections and face wage gaps and workplace discrimination. These conditions stem from systemic issues including women’s time poverty related to unpaid care and domestic work, lack of education, and poor enforcement of rights.
Women agricultural workers face health risks due to lack of or poor training, sanitation, and safety equipment. These unsafe conditions disproportionately affect women and young women in rural areas.
Discriminatory social norms and structural barriers limit women's participation in labour unions and producers’ organizations. This restricts their voice in workplace rights and representation.
Migrant and displaced women and girls are at high risk of exploitation, trafficking, and abuse in the labour market.
Women as producers and entrepreneurs. Women in food systems face barriers in accessing land, capital, and knowledge. This limits their productivity and contribution to food security.
Exclusion from networks and services reduces their access to resources and business opportunities.
Access to financial services and social capital. Women face major financial barriers due to discriminatory laws, lack of collateral, limited training, and discriminatory social and gender norms. These restrict their access to loans, credit, and insurance, limiting enterprise growth and productivity.
Key figures
There still is a notable gender pay gap in agricultural wage employment: on average, women earn 82 cents for every dollar earned by men.
Globally, 49 percent of women in agriculture are contributing family workers, compared to 17 percent of men.
In off-farm agrifood systems, 28 percent of women are own-account workers and 9 percent contributing family workers (FAO, 2023).
Women farmers are less likely to own or use resources, resulting in a land productivity gap of around 24% compared to men (FAO, 2023).
Ensure a strong legal framework and enforcement of laws that protect workers’ rights.
Collect, analyse and use sex- and age-disaggregated data, especially on informal agriculture work.
Ensure gender equality and labour rights in all workplaces, in line with International Labour Organization standards.
Promote decent work by ensuring labour rights, social dialogue, and access to social protection.
Adopt specific policies, programmes and strategies to foster women’s access to employment, entrepreneurship and farm ownership through education, training, and gender-sensitive investments in agriculture.
Help women move from informal to formal employment by recognizing and protecting their labour rights and supporting their entrepreneurial roles.
Promote cross-sectoral gender-responsive policies and programmes that provide safer work environments, address care burdens, and reduce wage gaps.
Facilitate women’s participation in food system investments via cooperatives, markets, and partnerships with private actors.
Invest in infrastructure, technology, and tools to reduce women’s work burden and enhance their productivity and incomes.
Address harmful gender norms to facilitate women’s control over benefits in agriculture and food value chains.
Develop strategies that build women’s capacity to engage in food systems and related labour markets.
Facilitate women's participation in producers’ groups and financial systems to enhance economic autonomy and leadership.
Analyse food value chains from a gender perspective to identify and address discrimination in all stages from production to retail.
Promote coordinated and gender-responsive policy coherence and policy dialogue for decent work across agriculture, employment, climate, and social protection sectors.
Recognize and support Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge and include Indigenous women in food systems and land tenure.
Support women’s access to resources, training, and networks to build business skills and strengthen their roles in value chains.
Remove legal and social barriers to women’s financial inclusion through tailored financial programs with flexible collateral requirements and terms.
Analyse risks and opportunities to ensure women’s incomes and fair access to savings.
Encourage provision of innovative financial products and services for women, and raise awareness among financial institutions to support inclusion.
Build women’s financial literacy, access to financial information, e-commerce skills, and provide business development support.
Facilitate women’s access to local, regional and international markets, including through collective associations and cooperatives and tailored financial services.