Rural Women Workers Research Articles

Empowering Women in Agriculture: Assessing the Impact of the Food Acquisition Program (Paa) on Family Farming in the Western Region of São Paulo, Mirante do Paranapanema, Brazil

Purpose: The objective of the research was to analyze, based on the interfaces between gender and family farming, how access to a public policy, in this case, the Food Acquisition Program (FAP), influences (or not) the empowerment of participating female farmers. Theoretical framework: The methodology used in the research was a case study and interviews were carried out based on elaborate semi-structured scripts (Triviños, 1987). A bibliographical survey was carried out using HERÉDIA; CINTRÃO, 2006, BRASIL, 2011, HAESBAERT (2004), among other literature publications, and systematization of data from secondary sources with National Supply Company. Conception/Methodology/Approach: We took as empirical reference the “Associação Força Feminina” in the municipality of “Mirante do Paranapanema”, in the State of São Paulo. This Association participated of FAP between 2011 and 2016, and it was verified through data from secondary sources that there was growth in terms of values of approved projects. Findings: We consider that the PAA was an action that made it possible to expand the participation of family farming and that generated economic autonomy for women. The PAA provided advances in relation to the quality of life to the women farmers of the Associação Força Feminina, as it valued agricultural products, increased the diversity of production, brought producers and consumers closer together, offered sales guarantees and paid more advantageous prices. Research, practical and social implications: The study deals with issues related to public policies and issues of empowerment in the state of São Paulo – BR. Access to the Food Acquisition Program (SAP), aimed at rural women workers, intends to take into account the social and cultural specificities of family farming, and makes it possible to understand that public policies are an important instrument, that can change the living situation of the families involved and of their beneficiaries. Originality/Value: In this article, a careful case study was developed, based on research into the participation of women farmers in the Food Acquisition Program (PAF), establishing parameters for analysis of whether this participation increased their level of economic and personal empowerment.

Perception of urban and rural working women towards e-banking

Perception of urban and rural working women towards e-banking

Accessibility of Entitlements among Women Agricultural Workers: A Case Study from Goalpara District of Assam, India

Despite several existing legal provisions to provide equal rights for women and men, Indian women agricultural workers remain restricted from getting their agricultural entitlements due to various socio-cultural reasons including discriminatory gendered norms. The study attempts to understand the accessibility of entitlements among women agricultural workers in the Goalpara district of Assam – the region where women’s dependency on agriculture is overwhelming. The study is based on a mixed-methods approach, using data collected from the field survey. The study reveals that rural agricultural women workers face substantial hindrances in accessing basic agricultural entitlements like land, credit and modern technology, making them socially and economically vulnerable.

Family patio agroecosystem: role and empowerment of rural women in two communities

Objective: To identify the role of women in the family patio agroecosystem and its relationship in the empowerment process, in two groups of women in the municipality of Medellín de Bravo, Veracruz, Mexico. Design/methodology/approach: The research carried out is qualitative-quantitative, of a constructionist nature, and is based on the Research-Action-Participatory process, through adaptation of the management model for natural resource management in family farming. Results: The psychometric results obtained in the Rosemberg Self-Esteem Scale indicate that the average response is 26.3, which indicates a normal self-esteem of women who work in the family patio agroecosystem, and positively impacts their human development, empowerment, and personal identity. Limitations on study/implications: The work of rural women in the family patio agroecosystem is not recognized, so it is important that it be made visible, mainly to them, and that they be empowered in their being, through their actions. Findings/conclusions: A total of 52 species were found, distributed among 15 fruit trees, 13 ornamental plants, 9 seasoning plants, 9 medicinal plants, 4 timber trees and only 2 vegetables. In the breeding of small species, 3 animal species are reported: 41 chickens, 2 pigs and 3 sheep.

Al-ʿUcha

<i>Al-ʿUcha</i>

Condições de trabalho e saúde de trabalhadoras rurais: uma revisão integrativa

ABSTRACT Changes in the global rural workforce took place from 1980 onwards, above all, with the increase in female participation in salaried work. An integrative review of the literature on the working and health conditions of rural women workers, published from 2010 to 2020, was carried out. The databases consulted were BVS, SciELO and PubMed, and 43 studies, 11 national and 32 internationals, were analyzed. The results point to a diversity of work activities performed by rural women, in a salaried, autonomous and cooperative way, as well as unpaid activities. Working conditions in salaried jobs are generally precarious, with temporary contracts, low wages and long working hours. In autonomous work and in cooperatives, studies report greater control of activities, financial autonomy and greater satisfaction of workers. Stood out in all forms of work, the sexual division of labor and the work overload with the addition of productive activities, unpaid reproductive activities, housework and care work. Musculoskeletal disorders, suffering and mental illness, high exposure and poisoning to pesticides and violence in the work and domestic environment were identified as preponderant in the health-work relationships experienced by these rural women workers.

The Socio-Economic Empowerment of Rural Women Workers

Rural women enormously contribute to the family income through undertaking a number of agricultural activities and thereby achieving their socio-economic empowerment. Hence, the present study mainly aims at analyzing the socio-economic variables of rural women workers in terms age, marital status, educational qualification, experience, community, religion, family type, family size and family monthly income and contribution of women to family income for empowering in socially and economically.

It Takes a Village: Childcare and Women's Paid Employment in India

AbstractWhy is maternal employment higher in rural than in urban India? Among the relevant supply‐side factors, previous research has emphasized that rural work is more compatible with childcare. Results from the Indian Time Use Survey of 2019 show that hours of active maternal childcare are only slightly lower in rural areas, but the temporal and spatial flexibility of paid employment is much greater, making it easier for mothers to accommodate childcare responsibilities. In particular, rural women's work affords them greater access to flexible hours and the ability to work in close proximity to the home. Consequently, the negative effects of motherhood on employment are significantly greater for urban women than for rural women. This finding cannot be explained by rural–urban differences in household structure or resource constraints. These results redirect attention from average levels of time use towards a more nuanced analysis of sequence, timing, and opportunities for joint production or multitasking.

Study on investment behaviour among rural working women with special reference to Ernakulam District

Literacy and employment have evolved and developed contributing to women empowerment. Savings has been the main motivation tool for many which facilitates them in meeting financial needs and basic necessities. This study is focused on investigating saving habits of rural working women. Primary and secondary data were employed in this study, and SPSS tools were used to analyse the data. This study includes examining the investment awareness levels, current investment pattern and factors affecting the investment decisions. The study shows that as most of the women want to avoid risk, large number of women are making use of only conventional investment opportunities, even though they are aware about other fruitful investment opportunities.

State Socialism and the Rural Household: How Women's Handloom Weaving (and Pig-Raising, Firewood-Gathering, Food-Scavenging) Subsidized Chinese Accumulation

AbstractMassive, rapid capital accumulation is usually associated with capitalist development, but historically, socialist states were among the most aggressive accumulators. Accumulation in Maoist China was faster than even in Stalin's Soviet Union, despite the fact that China was a much poorer country with fewer natural resources. China's accumulation rate, defined as the ratio of gross capital formation to gross national income, reached twenty-five to thirty per cent in 1957–1962, peaking at forty-four per cent in 1958. This level proved to be unsustainable, but after a slowdown in the early 1960s, the rate rose back to thirty-six percent.1 As is well known, the cost of China's rapid industrialization was borne mostly by its rural population.2 My aim in this chapter is to show that it was disproportionally borne by rural women, who contributed to socialist accumulation in direct and indirect ways: directly, as collective farmers, growers of the grain, cotton, soy, tea, sugarcane, etc. that fueled industrialization; and indirectly, by biologically, socially, and materially reproducing the country's labor force and by submitting to a regime of extreme austerity that allowed the government to extract scarce resources and direct them to the cities and the export trade. My argument proceeds in three steps. I will begin with an overview of socialist primitive accumulation under Mao, its preconditions and mechanisms, and the ways it replicated earlier Soviet policies or diverged from them. Next, I will discuss the various ways in which rural women's work underpinned capital accumulation and laid the foundation for China's rapid industrialization in the years since Mao's death. Finally, I will look in some detail at rural women's work at home, to show how their self-exploitation, overwork, and underconsumption in the domestic realm created the conditions for accumulation. My focus is on cotton work – both cotton cultivation and domestic cloth production – but I will also look at other ways in which domestic work supported accumulation.

Trabajo de cuidado y ruralidad en la caficultura caldense: el caso de las “alimentadoras”

This presentation, show the results of the research about the work of rural women that cook meals on farms and coffee plantations in the rural area of three municipalities belonging to the south-central region of Caldas (Colombia). The purpose of this research is the understanding of the situations of labor invisibility that surrounds the activity of preparing and supplying meals in the context of rural coffee work. The work methodology and the way in which the data is constructed and analyzed, mainly focused on narratives derived from the life stories of the participants, reveal the conditions of gender segregation, inequity in access and use of resources, and wage inequality in terms of economic remuneration, but also how this work is configured as an essential issue for production and maintenance of the labor force, social relations, and productivity of coffee companies.

Ergonomical Assessment on Hand Operated Chaff Cutter by Rural Women Workers

A study was conducted to ease the fodder cutting operations a commercially available hand chaff cutter (Sokhiya Agricultural Industries, Jaipur, India) during 2019–20 in the Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering at College of Agricultural Engineering, Sangareddy, Telangana, India. The assessment was done using with 3 different age group female workers who regularly feed to the animals to assess its suitability for workers of the southern region of India. The parameters used for the Ergonomical evaluation include machine operation at different forces are heart rate, pulse rate, oxygen consumption rate, and energy expenditure rate. The average heart rate for female subjects of P1, P2 and P3 was recorded before the operation is 79, 76 and 81 beats min-1 and after the operation is 109, 108 and 113 beats min-1 for various fodders. The average pulse rate for female subjects of P1, P2, and P3 was recorded before the operation is 62, 68, and 63 beats min-1 and after the operation is 80, 80, and 82 beats min-1 for various fodders. The average oxygen consumption rate and energy expenditure rate of female subjects of P1, P2 and P3 were found to be 0.61, 0.59 and 0.66 liter min-1, and 12.68, 12.36 and 13.74 KJ min-1 respectively after operation of chaff cutter. The physiological parameters are heart rate, pulse rate, oxygen consumption rate, and energy consumption rate increased more rapidly for all age group female workers after operation of chaff cutter with 3 various fodders.

Assessment of Self-Esteem among Working Women

Women are significantly involved in the development of any nation by managing personal responsibilities as well as professional life. They are playing an important role in economic and social development of any society and their participation gives them satisfaction at their home up to a greater extent. Self-esteem is defined by how much value people place on themselves being the evaluative component of self-knowledge, high self-esteem refers to a highly favorable global evaluation of the self. So, the study was conducted in Hisar district of Haryana state on 400 rural and urban working women to assess their self-esteem. It was found that a very high majority of respondents (95.5%) of urban area were having low level of leisure time exercise and 47.5 percent respondents were having high level of self –esteem. Occupation of respondents was observed statistically significant only in low level of self-esteem (F=2.84, p&lt;0.05).

Awareness and Exercise of Human Rights Among Women of Punjab

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, irrespective of their nationality, places of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. People everywhere should know and understand what human rights are, to lessen the chances of tyranny and to promote justice and well-being in society. Awareness, understanding, and use of human rights can empower individuals, can promote solutions for specific problems and thus can reduce friction within society. A recent study was conducted to explore the awareness and exercise of human rights among working and non-working women of Punjab. The study was a descriptive survey. Simple random sampling technique was employed to select a sample of 200 women (100 working women and 100 non-working women). Further, out of 100 women, 50 were from the rural area while 50 were from the urban area. The results of the study revealed that working women had a greater awareness of human rights and exercise more human rights in comparison to their non-working women counterparts. Further, rural working and urban working women had similar awareness of human rights while rural working women exercise more human rights as compared to urban counterparts. While rural and urban non-working women had similar awareness as well as knowledge about human rights.

Promoting Women Participation in India’s Labour Force in Different Sectors

Employment is critical for helping women and their families rise economically and socially. However, if employed in low-paying work characterised by stress and distress, the economic well-being and welfare of women will not improve. This paper examines the trend and growth of self-employed and wage labour women workers in agriculture in Indian states, rural and urban women in household work in Indian states and rural and urban women workers in different sectors between 1999-2000 and 2011-12. This study applies experimental evidence. The study aimed to explore the growth of self-employed and wage labour for women in agriculture in Indian states. In order to accomplish this, rural and urban women who work in different sectors and women who work in the household sector were studied in order to apply percentage, linear trend, and compound growth rates. Internet, books, newspaper, journals, records, and brochures are used as secondary data in creating their results. In 1999–2000, the mean proportion of rural women workers in different sectors was 3.2918% and the standard deviation was 5.73%. In 2011–2012, the mean proportion of rural women workers in different sectors was 4.2327% and the standard deviation was 8.16%. Though, the mean proportion of urban women workers in different sectors between 1999-2000 and 2011-12 showed an increase of 6.92 and 7.89 percent, and the variance increased from 11.73 to 11.71. The trends found were significant at the 5% level, and their coefficients are all positive. The 4.26%, 8.54%, and 8.09% average annual increases of female workers in different sectors shows that women in agricultural, household, and different sectors have all increased by the rate of 4.26%, 8.54%, and 8.09% each year on average. Women who do household work have a higher growth rate, as opposed to women who do other kinds of work and women who work in agriculture. For women in agriculture, the compound growth rates are 0.86%, 7.02% and 0.32%. It suggests that the problem needs to be addressed with government action and policy development.

Plantations, women, and food security in Africa: Interrogating the investment pathway towards zero hunger in Cameroon and Ghana

In this paper, we critically engage with SDG-2- Target 2.3 and SDG-5 to examine how and why large-scale agricultural land acquisitions modify the social relations of women’s food access. Adopting qualitative methods and from agrarian political economy perspectives, we assess the implications of plantation investments on food security and gender equality in Cameroon and Ghana. The study draws on the impacts of various plantation schemes in Cameroon and Ghana to argue that the current all-encompassing framing of the SDG-2, whereby support for small-scale production appears to co-exist with the promotion of corporate-led agricultural investments, tends to create a vague interpretation of food security, even when capitalist motives override the interests of rural working men and women. In both countries, plantations have been characterised by displacement, reduced food production and competition over land resources in rural contexts where women bear the burden of social reproduction, particularly in subsistence and food provisioning for their households. Restricted access to farmlands hampers petty commodity production, and provokes rural exodus among farming populations in Cameroon who compete with pastoralists for land; and in the Ghana case, where settlers and migrants compete with dispossessed indigenes for arable lands. The study shows the inherent contradictions and tensions within the narratives of sustainable development and projects which are considered as potential pathways to the SDGs. One of such tension areas is between local food security- which is a gendered role for women in West/Central Africa – and the accumulation imperatives of capitalist investors. We iterate that achieving zero hunger requires gender-inclusive land and labour policies that recognise, protect and empower small farmers and women, and create opportunities for local and national food self-sufficiency.

O empoderamento feminino e as políticas públicas para o espaço rural: o caso do Projeto Semeadura

As políticas públicas voltadas às mulheres rurais garantem os direitos e o acesso à documentação, à terra, ao crédito, à produção agroecológica, aos serviços de assistência técnica e extensão rural, à comercialização e agregação de valor à produção, à participação na gestão, ao desenvolvimento territorial e à manutenção da memória coletiva e dos conhecimentos tradicionais. Objetiva-se no presente trabalho discutir sobre alguns movimentos de mulheres do meio rural, trazendo, neste artigo, as atividades do Projeto Semeadura, que é resultado da parceria entre Ministério do Desenvolvimento Agrário e a organização da Sociedade Civil de Interesse Público a Guayí. Este tem como objetivo para sua realização, contribuir para o fortalecimento da auto-organização das mulheres trabalhadoras rurais, por meio de sua participação nos espaços de gestão social, na perspectiva de um desenvolvimento rural sustentável e solidário, contribuindo para a redução das desigualdades de gênero e para a ampliação do protagonismo das mulheres do campo.

Socio-cultural factors affecting the problems of rural and urban working women

Even today in the 21st century, the socio-cultural factors have a great influence on the lives of working women in Haryana as it has innumerable prejudiced traditions and customs which play a dominant role in curtailing her freedom to large extent. There are still numerous social, cultural and psychological pressures on women for the ideal role to be played by them in the society. Status and role of women are linked to the cultural and social practices of their regions. As a result of this their attitude, value and belief system are formed in relation to their role and status. Therefore, the study was conducted to study the socio-cultural factors affecting the problems of working women. Analysis revealed that suitable accommodation (70%) was the major social problem of respondents followed by transfer (31.6%) and limited participation in social network (28.3%). Educational level of respondents was also found significantly associated with level of social problems. Further results highlighted that respondents faced low level of social problems irrespective of family type and size of the family. Results further revealed that 50% of the respondents with annual family income up to 5 lakhs faced low level of social problems. Results depict that a good percentage (35%) of respondents used bus to reach the office followed by 29.1% used their own vehicle to reach the work place.

Human Rights Violations against Rural Women Workers

Human Rights Violations against Rural Women Workers

Legal Protection For Women Working In Egyptian Labor Law (A Comparative Study In Of Sharkia Governorate) الحمایة القانونیة للمرأة العاملة فی ظل تشریعات قانون العمل المصری (دراسة مقارنة بمحافظة الشرقیة)

T he study aimed to identify the degree of knowledge of rural working women for the materials of the legal protection of their rights under the Egyptian Labor Law in both the government sector and the private sector in Sharkia Governorate. Determination of the degree of application of the labor sector (governmental - private) to the materials of the legal protection of the rights of working women under the legislation of the Egyptian Labor Law, from the point of view of rural working women,and measure the applied gap between two sector (governmental - private) for this materials in Sharkia Governorate, also determining the factors affecting the degree of knowledge of materials of rural working women in the legal protection of their rights under the legislation of the Egyptian Labor Law, and The degree of the contribution of each of all influencing factors significantly, finally determining the factors affecting the degree of application of the (governmental - private) sector to the legal protection of the rights of rural working women under the legislation of the Egyptian law, and the degree of contribution of each of the factors affecting significantly, in addition to identify the positive and negative effects of working of rural women in the Sharkia Governorate. The study was conducted data on a random sample of women working in the governmental sector and the private sector in the villages of al-Nakhariyya and al-Hajarsah in Sharkia Governorate about 171 researched women by 5% of the total number of women in the labor force in the two villages, the field data were collected by a questionnaire of a personal interview form from the beginning of May to the end of August 2018. The field data were analyzed using several statistical methods: Frequency and percentage, mean, weighted average, Pearson coefficient, “Step Wise”. The study reached several results, which are: (A) The degree of knowledge of rural women working in the governmental sector with the provisions of the Egyptian Labor Law regarding the employment of women is Medium (83.1%), While the degree of knowledge of rural women working in the private sector of these materials is low (58.7%). (B) The degree of application by the governmental sector of the provisions of the Egyptian Labor Law with respect to the employment of women is 89%, while the private sector has a low rate of 96.1%. (C) There is an application gap between the governmental sector and the private sector regarding the application of the legal protection materials for the rights of working women under the Egyptian labor law legislation. This gap is in favor of the governmental sector. (D) There are a four independent variables explain about 68.4% of the total variance in the degree of application of the labor sector to the legal protection of the rights of working women under the Egyptian labor law legislation, these variables as follows: the degree of knowledge of legal protection materials for the social aspects, The degree of knowledge of the legal protection materials for financial fields, the number of training courses and seminars, The degree of women’s self-development and the demand for their rights, In percentages (57.6%), (7.3%), (1.5%), (2%), respectively.