Women in Rural Life

Abstract

Plans for agricultural development are apt to take for granted that this is entirely a matter for men. It is men who own land and among whom land is distributed in agrarian reforms; it is men who raise loans to pay for fertilisers and other improvements. Often, though not always, it is they who dispose of the family’s cash income. So it is assumed that it is also men who do the actual work in the fields, and men to whom extension propaganda should be directed. Little attention is given to the effect on women’s work load of the adoption of the new methods that are recommended. Nor has it been common — though it is not entirely unknown — for small advances in technology to be devised with the aim of lightening this load. Another question that is not always asked, when men are urged to adopt new methods which will need harder work but bring in better returns, is: Who will do the work and who will get the returns?