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Closing the Knowledge Gap on Gender in Agriculture

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Book cover Gender in Agriculture

Abstract

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book, Gender in Agriculture: Closing the Knowledge Gap. The book grew out of collaborative work done for Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) flagship report, The State of Food and Agriculture 2010–11, Women in agriculture: Closing the gender gap for development, highlighting the important and varied roles of women in agriculture, their unequal access to productive resources and opportunities relative to men, and the gains that could be achieved by closing the gender gap in agriculture. This book provides a more thorough treatment of the conceptual and empirical basis of the FAO report, and fills a niche in the literature for a standard reference for the analysis of gender issues in agriculture. This chapter defines basic concepts related to sex and gender and discusses changes in the way gender issues have been conceptualized in agriculture from the work of Ester Boserup, to the Women in Development (WID) and Gender and Development (GAD) debate, to current approaches that recognize the importance of both women and men and the interplay between the two in agriculture. It traces how gender issues have been addressed institutionally and discusses shifting paradigms in the economic analysis of the household, including how demographic processes surrounding household formation and dissolution, gender differences across the life cycle, and migration have implications for the gender gap in agriculture. It then provides a summary of each of the chapters, suggests areas for future research, and explores implications for development policy and practice.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There is a growing literature on the measurement of empowerment (see Kabeer 1999; Alsop and Heinsohn 2005); the most recent studies attempt to develop multidimensional indices because empowerment is a multidimensional concept. See, for example, Ibrahim and Alkire (2007).

  2. 2.

    Implications of these differences for project design and agricultural technology are discussed by Cloud (1983), Doss (2001), and Feldstein and Poats (1989). These and other studies from Sub-Saharan Africa are reviewed in Gladwin and Macmillan (1989).

  3. 3.

    Many of these challenges came from studies in the 1980s that suggested that men and women spend income under their control in systematically different ways. These studies included Guyer (1980), Tripp (1982), Pahl (1983), and studies from different countries (for example, Fapohunda 1988) in the volume edited by Dwyer and Bruce (1988). A series of studies on agricultural commercialization and nutrition in developing countries also found that female-controlled income is more likely than male-controlled income to be spent on food (Kennedy 1994).

  4. 4.

    See Haddad et al. (1997) for a detailed discussion of both types of models.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), 2033 K Street, N.W, Washington, DC, 20006, USA

    Agnes R. Quisumbing

  2. Environment and Production Technology Division, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), 2033 K Street, N.W, Washington, DC, 20006, USA

    Ruth Meinzen-Dick

  3. The State of Food and Agriculture, Agricultural Development Economics Division, Economic and Social Development Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153, Rome, Italy

    Terri L. Raney

  4. Agricultural Development Economics Division, Economic and Social Development Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153, Rome, Italy

    André Croppenstedt

  5. Department of Sociology, New York University, 295 Lafayette Street, 4th floor, New York, NY, 10012, USA

    Julia A. Behrman

  6. Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Amber Peterman

Authors
  1. Agnes R. Quisumbing
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  2. Ruth Meinzen-Dick
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  3. Terri L. Raney
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  4. André Croppenstedt
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  5. Julia A. Behrman
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  6. Amber Peterman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Agnes R. Quisumbing .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division, International Food Policy Research Inst., Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Agnes R. Quisumbing

  2. Environment and Production Technology Division, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Ruth Meinzen-Dick

  3. The State of Food and Agriculture, Agricultural Development Economics Division, Economic and Social Development Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy

    Terri L. Raney

  4. Agricultural Development Economics Division, Economic and Social Development Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy

    André Croppenstedt

  5. Department of Sociology, New York University, New York, New York, USA

    Julia A. Behrman

  6. Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

    Amber Peterman

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Quisumbing, A.R., Meinzen-Dick, R., Raney, T.L., Croppenstedt, A., Behrman, J.A., Peterman, A. (2014). Closing the Knowledge Gap on Gender in Agriculture. In: Quisumbing, A., Meinzen-Dick, R., Raney, T., Croppenstedt, A., Behrman, J., Peterman, A. (eds) Gender in Agriculture. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8616-4_1

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