Issue: GENDER & WOMEN'S RIGHTS

Ahead of this International Women’s Day, we would like to draw attention to ways that women – whether Indigenous, rural workers or those enduring an occupation – resist and mobilise in the face of multiple, long-term crises. Existing patriarchal systems, structural inequalities and discriminatory laws have long stalled meaningful progress towards gender equality and women’s rights. For women living in crises such as conflicts, facing recurrent environmental disasters and cyclical financial shocks, the Covid-19 pandemic has come as an additional blow, severely impacting their right to adequate food. 

Conflict is a key and persistent driver of food system breakdown: more than half of undernourished people live in countries experiencing conflict. Extreme weather, economic shocks and climate change are also prevalent drivers of food crises and greatly affect food systems. Funding requirements for food security in humanitarian appeals rose to US$9 billion in 2020, up from US$5 billion in 2015. 

Crises manifest in different ways and take different forms. They can affect only particular groups in a population or bring destruction to entire nations. 

Marginalised communities, and specifically Indigenous peoples, have long faced a crisis of food insecurity, and in many parts of the world women and girls face a crisis of long-standing discriminatory practices that directly impact their food security. Women agricultural workers can face unjust working conditions that offer little job security, lower wages than male counterparts and no benefits for illness or maternity, all while being exposed to an often unsafe work environment. 

Even in wealthy countries in the Global North, Indigenous peoples often face extremely high levels of food insecurity. This is largely due to the impacts of colonisation, which include land theft, severely diminished access to hunting, fishing, and wild food gathering grounds, and the arrival and dominance of an entirely new colonial food system. In many parts of the world Indigenous women whose access to traditional foods has been severely limited must rely on expensive and often unhealthy, ultra-processed foods to feed their families. 

Caught in the quagmire of these multiple crises, women and girls continue to be the group distinctly and often disproportionately affected. 

In armed conflicts, for example, adolescent girls are 90 per cent more likely to be pulled out of school, and 70 per cent of women in humanitarian settings are more likely to experience gender-based violence (GBV). Quarantine measures during the pandemic have exacerbated domestic violence globally, and many women have been forced to prioritise unpaid care work and gendered domestic responsibilities. 

The rights of women are embedded in, and strengthened through several policy and international legal instruments, including the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises (CFS-FFA) addresses the inequalities and vulnerabilities often faced by women and girls in crises that affect their food and nutrition security. The United Nations Security Council’s Resolution 1325 recognises and reaffirms women’s role in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace-building, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction. Additionally, adopted in 2019, the International Labour Organization’s Convention 190 is the first international labour standard to address the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and harassment, including gender-based violence and harassment. 

Routinely, these policies and laws are poorly implemented – if at all. In many regions, women and girls are evicted repeatedly throughout their lifetime, and are systemically prevented from claiming rights to land for subsistence and livelihood. Even where domestic law aligns with CEDAW, local customary practices that deny women’s rights to land can in practice take precedence. 

Supporting women’s resourcefulness and resilience 

Despite these challenges, women and girls in crises are, by necessity, resilient and resourceful, and have a sea of knowledge that boosts peace-building and humanitarian efforts. Experience and research show that when women are included in humanitarian action their entire community benefits. Women are often the first responders to a crisis and play a key role in the survival and rebuilding of communities. 

In Palestine, women who have been dispossessed from their lands since 1947 have become agricultural entrepreneurs, building resilience and resistance to the ongoing occupation, closure, and apartheid system implemented by the Israeli state. 

This includes the saving, sharing and cultivation of traditional seed varieties. One Palestinian woman in the West Bank spearheaded the first and only Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, preserving and making traditional seeds widely available, while the Urban Women Agripreneurs Forum in the Gaza Strip save and share seeds to grow on rooftops and home gardens in Gaza’s densely populated cities and refugee camps. These activities not only help provide access to fresh, healthy foods, but is also a form of resistance against Israeli actions that threaten Palestinian farming culture. 

In many parts of Uganda, women have been able to survive financial shocks by becoming resourceful workers in the informal sector: as street food vendors, agricultural or fishing workers, and in any other capacity that allows them to have an income. As a result of their survival abilities and growing self-sufficiency, they have been accused of witchcraft and have been a target of ‘witch-hunting’. Such accusations have stripped them of their lands, homes, sources of livelihood and exposed them to acute social banishment. Against all odds, these women have mobilised and gathered support from local organisations, and are working to challenge these practices with advocacy and legal tools. 

Affected women and local women’s rights groups are also increasingly fighting the ongoing inheritance-loss crisis through legal and advocacy avenues. In India and several countries in Africa, training is being provided to measure the true cost of the losses that women endure through these discriminatory practices. 

Crises present the most unimaginable, unconducive living conditions and take a much bigger toll on women. We have seen how women continue to mobilise and become meaningful leaders of change and resistance, even during crises. 

Ahead of International Women’s Day, we remind governments, and all actors in humanitarian and crisis contexts, that aligning domestic law and policy to international standards is simply not enough. The rights that women have on paper must be reflected in their everyday lives. 

This can be best achieved by consistently monitoring on-the-ground outcomes in crisis response using a strengthened gender lens. It is also important that affected women are provided the opportunity to equally participate in decision-making, including for crisis response and ways to address root causes of crises. While the primary responsibility to ensure human rights lies with our governments, civil society and ordinary citizens can play a valuable role as eyes and ears throughout these crises. It is up to all of us to transition to a just, equal and sustainable world. 

This OpEd was first published in “Equal Times”

Women in rural areas have long stressed the ways in which domination and violence impact their lives. Women face severe restrictions over their sexual and reproductive health, and through various forms of gender-based violence exerted from within and outside their communities. Indeed, violence against women is not limited to the household, but also manifests itself in public institutions where there is unfair treatment and discrimination, which also prevents women from any decision-making over their lives. What’s more, for women in rural areas, violence also manifests itself through the destruction and dispossession of their means of livelihood, which are essential, for them and their families, to access adequate food. 

But women and their ability to cook up politics together, behind the scenes and when center stage, has shown to bring about radical social transformations. On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, it is time to celebrate and foster spaces where women can build transformative political agendas to shape a future without violence.

Created by feminists and rural women the world over, a feminist methodological guide is encouraging other women to build collective strategies in rural areas to strengthen their fight against the oppression that governs the different aspects of their lives and of their communities.  

Download “Cooking Up Political Agendas” 
Follow up discussions on social media via #CookUpPolitics

In all regions of the world, in both urban and rural contexts, women and girls take up an immense proportion of unpaid care work. Simply put, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, where women in rural areas can spend between 8 and 10 hours every day on unpaid care work. In South Africa, almost three quarters of the value of household production is done by women. In Argentina, women take up in average twice as much household work than men. What about Europe? In countries like Portugal, women spend at least 5 hours daily on similar activities – men only 1.5 hours.

This includes household tasks like buying food, cooking, cleaning and taking care of children, the elderly and sick. This type of work is still unrecognized and undervalued, even though the economy and our societies would not function without it.

This is also true for our food systems and food work. In other words, who produces, cooks, buys and shares, distributes and disposes our food, and how. So… if women stopped their food work today, what would be on your plate tomorrow?

Despite all this, women continue to be disproportionally affected by hunger and malnutrition – and their roles in food systems rendered invisible. Our economic food system exploits women and benefits from the free or lowly paid care work that we do, from the low wages and precarious conditions of work.

The first step towards overcoming this is to start in our own homes. We must make visible the unpaid, unrecognized social reproductive work of women. We must reflect on – and change – the assumptions and values we assign to women’s roles and work in society. And we can challenge the ways that patriarchy and the neoliberal capitalist food system negatively impacts both women and nature, and press for the right to food for all.

Women are at the forefront of the struggle for a society without exploitation, mobilizing, organizing, and exercising their autonomy worldwide, through both quiet daily resistance and organized social movements.

When it is more urgent than ever to reimagine food, environment and economies – let us turn to women for answers.

 

 

 

In Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, women in rural areas can spend between 8 and 10 hours every day on unpaid care work. In Rwanda, women spend at least 5 hours daily on such activities – men only 1.5 hours. Women do 64% of all unpaid care work in Australia; in South Africa, almost three quarters of the value of household production is done by women; in Argentina, women take up in average twice as much household work than men. It is clear: in all regions of the world, in both urban and rural contexts, women and girls take up an immense proportion of unpaid care work.

What is more, as the 2020 Women’s Global Strike denounces, this type of work is still unrecognized and undervalued, even though the economy would not function without it. Our current economic order is “exploiting women and benefiting from the free or lowly paid care work that we do, from the low wages and precarious conditions of work,” its political manifesto decries. “Women’s Power in Food Struggles”, the latest issue of the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch, underscores this and further makes the link between women and nature arguing they are both “othered” and exploited. More so, the current system is dependent on social reproduction but also rests on an extractivist model which causes ecological destruction.

Our dominant food systems and food work – in other words, who produces, cooks, buys/shares, eats, distributes and disposes our food, and how – mirrors the dynamics of the current economic order. We pose the question: If women stopped their food work, what would be on your plate today? In many communities around the world, women are the bearers of traditional knowledge around plants, biodiversity and seeds. In Malawi, for instance, smallholder women farmers are the ones producing, using, saving and sharing indigenous seeds. In some parts of India, they make up 70% of tea plantation workers. In many places, women are also active in rearing livestock, protecting forests, and weaving nets or catching, trading or processing fish. Across the world, women make up the bulk of food producers and agricultural workers.  

What is more, while many women globally are food producers, almost all women “are feeding the world as food finders, makers and feeders – of men, families and communities.” Women nourish their babies, are more often than not the ones to prepare and cook food in daily life, and in many cultures, are seen as the custodians of healthy food practices. Even when migrating, women are the ones to look for food and cook. When food is scarce, they put their children first. This is not by chance; these roles are socially ascribed and embedded in the capitalist-patriarchal structure of our societies.

Despite all this, women continue to be disproportionally affected by hunger and malnutrition – and their roles in food systems and food work rendered invisible. Especially in rural areas and working class communities, women's work is often seen as a woman's 'duty'. From the home to the countryside, the current neoliberal global food regime could not be sustained without women’s unpaid care work. In this way, gender relations shape food systems, influencing what we produce, how we work, and what we eat. And it is this system that exploits both women and the natural world on which we all depend for our survival.

The first step towards overcoming the unfair relations that shape food systems is to start in one’s own home. We need to make visible the unpaid, unrecognized social reproductive work of women. We must reflect on – and change – the assumptions and values we assign to women’s roles and food work in society. And we can challenge the ways that patriarchy and the hegemonic neoliberal capitalist food system negatively impacts both women and nature, and press for the right to food for all.

Women are at the forefront of the struggle for a non-exploitative society, mobilizing, organizing, and exercising their autonomy worldwide, through both quiet daily resistance and organized social movements: In the fields of India and Mali, growing nutritious food in manner that is socially and environmentally just; In Jinwar in Northern Syria, growing food collectively and building a new society; In the streets of Brazil, demonstrating against agribusiness violence through to the March of Daisies; At the UN Committee on World Food Security, influencing international decision-making on food issues. In today’s context of rising hunger and ecological collapse – when it is more urgent than ever to reimagine food, environment and economies – let us turn to women for answers.

This article has been written by M. Alejandra Morena (FIAN International), Donna Andrews and Kiah Smith, and was first published by the University of Queensland's blog. 

Over the past years, the debate around sexual and gender-based violence has caught the public’s attention, with movements such as #MeToo, #NiUnaMenos, or #BabaeAko (I am a woman) in the Philippines. Crimes such as the death of a 16-year-old Argentinean girl, after being drugged, raped and tortured, and the gang-rape of an 18-year old Spanish woman during the running of the bulls festival in Pamplona, have sparked outrage not only online, but also on the streets, with millions mobilizing.

Femicides and sexual violence are probably the acts of violence against women that are most mainstreamed, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. Even the most trivial tasks in our daily lives reflect the structural oppression that women face. Is it not violence against women when despite being the main food providers in the household and producing half of the world’s food, it is women who are the ones suffering most from hunger and owning a disproportionally small piece of the world’s land? The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women marks an occasion to look into how oppression starts with the most basic thing in our lives: food.

In the recently launched “Women’s Power in Food Struggles”, around 30 women from all regions in the world looked at the nexus of women and food – and found violence to be a common denominator. Women’s experiences are shaped not only by their gender, but also by other factors such as class, caste, ethnicity and sexual orientation, yet all women face various types and degrees of violence. And the way we work, eat, produce and distribute food is part of the problem. 

From growing produce, to processing, transporting, and consuming food, women play a pivotal role in food systems and economies. However, paradoxically, their roles and specific needs remain hidden from the general public eye, due to sexist ideas and practices. Out of the 820 million affected by hunger, women are the worse off, and even more so if they live in oppressive societies under exploitation and violence.

When amid hunger, women and girls are expected to be the last ones to eat, or to eat less, this is violence. When women are targeted by corporations to sell them endless products to lose weight and conform to beauty standards, this is violence. When women have no access to land due to cultural, economic or legal norms, this is violence. When during a violent eviction from the land they grow food on to subsist, women are raped by private and public security forces, this is violence. The list goes on and on.

The dominating economic system and current political climate are exacerbating this. Across the world, rising authoritarian right-wing governments are promoting restrictive abortion laws and other policies that limit women’s reproductive rights and political agency. Racism and discrimination have led to less access to social services and increased poverty and food insecurity among migrant women and women of color. Indigenous and peasant women and communities are violently dispossessed from their territories in order to pave the way for mining and agribusiness. 

At the same time, corporate power continues to expand by heavily relying on unpaid household and care labor assigned to them due to their gender. This goes from caring for family members, cleaning and cooking, to fetching water and fodder. In cases of drought and food shortages, exacerbated by climate change and eco-destruction, women have to travel longer distances to find supplies for their families.

Despite all this, a key point must be made: women are not merely victims of violence, they are actively reshaping reality worldwide. They do so while continuously having to fight against the belief that politics is only for males. They are confronting authoritarianism, and self-organizing in the streets, their communities, and at global food governance spaces.

In Brazil, the Marcha das Margaridas (March of Daisies) is held every August since 2000, as the most massive action of working women from the countryside against agribusiness violence. In Northern Syria, in Jinwar, women have created a village – currently under threat – free from the constraints of the oppressive power structures of patriarchy and violence. In Mali and India, women and gender non-conforming individuals are producing food in a way that is transforming both gender relations and our relation with nature. These are inspiring cases.

If violence is central to current food systems, then building new relationships between genders, within communities, and towards the environment becomes a crucial step towards transformation – and women across the world are doing just that, as the examples above illustrate. On this day, let us raise our voices to engage in collective action and join this struggle, which despite missing in mainstream media, can make a difference for all women.  

By Alejandra Morena and Andrea Nuila Herrmannsdorfer