Resource information
From the outset, the development of agriculture has been strongly associated
with women’s endeavour. In fact, women’s contribution to agriculture goes
back to the origins of farming and the domestication of animals when the first
human settlements were established more than 6 000 years ago. Over the
years, the division of responsibilities and labour within households and
communities tended to place farming and nutrition-related tasks under
women’s domain. Nowadays, in many societies women continue to be mainly
responsible for family food security and nutrition. Nevertheless, the
institutional framework and policy environment have not necessarily evolved
to respond to the goals of human and social reproduction; on the contrary,
they have been subordinated to financial and profit-making goals.
Gender, together with other social and economic factors, determines the
individual’s and group’s access to and control over resources. Cultural norms
and social practices, as well as socio-economic factors, are among the main
obstacles women face in this regard. In practice, although most national legal
codes have explicitly incorporated legal provisions acknowledging gender
equality in relation to access and ownership of land and other productive
resources, it has been noted that women’s rights to own resources on equal
conditions to those of men are repeatedly disregarded or overlooked.
