Gender-focused analysis in rural agricultural producers in Los Rios, Ecuador

Abstract

This article aims to explore the producers’ vision about gender in Los Rios rural communities and the access of women to equal resources, services, and products in the agriculture area. A survey was carried out using a simple probabilistic sample of 130 producers among men and women inside different agriculture associations. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study confirms that women and men do not work on similar conditions regarding access to resources, training and extension services, access and property of land and inputs, although there is not a gap between women and men on a socioeconomic level. We highly recommend promoting public policies that could benefit women and promote a gender-neutral policy where decision-makers need to move to address the structural causes of inequalities, starting at the intra-household and community level.