Role of technology as an enabler for gender empowerment: Evidence from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan

Women constitute a majority of the workforce in agriculture and play a significant role worldwide in crop production. But their contribution largely remains invisible thus their involvement in agricultural policies/ programs continues to be overlooked. This invisibility of women affects their access...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Begum, Khadija
Format: Poster
Language:Inglés
Published: International Water Management Institute 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/137004
_version_ 1855538734078885888
author Begum, Khadija
author_browse Begum, Khadija
author_facet Begum, Khadija
author_sort Begum, Khadija
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Women constitute a majority of the workforce in agriculture and play a significant role worldwide in crop production. But their contribution largely remains invisible thus their involvement in agricultural policies/ programs continues to be overlooked. This invisibility of women affects their access to new agriculture/ irrigation technologies as mechanical work is considered men’s domain whereas women do all manual labor in the fields. IWMI introduced micro drip irrigation technology to women instead of following the established practice of introducing it to men. Going against the wind was a risk. Would the women show interest in adopting new technology, and would there be a social backlash because of this intentional targeting of women farmers? However, we decided to take this risk, as it would potentially open up new opportunities for women farmers to access new water and agriculture technologies, if successful. These interventions are not just about enhancing women’s skills in agriculture technologies. This is essentially a step towards intentionally transforming gender norms in situations where such interventions are hard to undertake. Enabling women to realize that they can handle new technologies and increase their income – has allowed men to also acknowledge these issues. Small, but important steps have been taken, for example, in breaking the social norms on women’s restricted mobility, by allowing them to travel safely in groups, to the city for attending training programs. This is how gender-responsive technological interventions can lead to transformative change towards a more inclusive, gender-equal society – in situations and contexts, where acting directly on unequal gender relations is challenging.
format Poster
id CGSpace137004
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
publisher International Water Management Institute
publisherStr International Water Management Institute
record_format dspace
spelling CGSpace1370042025-01-06T09:43:39Z Role of technology as an enabler for gender empowerment: Evidence from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan Begum, Khadija gender agriculture research women's empowerment Women constitute a majority of the workforce in agriculture and play a significant role worldwide in crop production. But their contribution largely remains invisible thus their involvement in agricultural policies/ programs continues to be overlooked. This invisibility of women affects their access to new agriculture/ irrigation technologies as mechanical work is considered men’s domain whereas women do all manual labor in the fields. IWMI introduced micro drip irrigation technology to women instead of following the established practice of introducing it to men. Going against the wind was a risk. Would the women show interest in adopting new technology, and would there be a social backlash because of this intentional targeting of women farmers? However, we decided to take this risk, as it would potentially open up new opportunities for women farmers to access new water and agriculture technologies, if successful. These interventions are not just about enhancing women’s skills in agriculture technologies. This is essentially a step towards intentionally transforming gender norms in situations where such interventions are hard to undertake. Enabling women to realize that they can handle new technologies and increase their income – has allowed men to also acknowledge these issues. Small, but important steps have been taken, for example, in breaking the social norms on women’s restricted mobility, by allowing them to travel safely in groups, to the city for attending training programs. This is how gender-responsive technological interventions can lead to transformative change towards a more inclusive, gender-equal society – in situations and contexts, where acting directly on unequal gender relations is challenging. 2023-10-10 2024-01-04T12:46:45Z 2024-01-04T12:46:45Z Poster https://hdl.handle.net/10568/137004 en Open Access application/pdf International Water Management Institute Begum, Khadija. 2023. Role of technology as an enabler for gender empowerment: Evidence from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Poster. Presented at the CGIAR GENDER Conference 'From Research to Impact: Towards just and resilient agri-food systems', New Delhi, India, 9-12 October 2023. International Water Management Institute
spellingShingle gender
agriculture
research
women's empowerment
Begum, Khadija
Role of technology as an enabler for gender empowerment: Evidence from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan
title Role of technology as an enabler for gender empowerment: Evidence from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan
title_full Role of technology as an enabler for gender empowerment: Evidence from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan
title_fullStr Role of technology as an enabler for gender empowerment: Evidence from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan
title_full_unstemmed Role of technology as an enabler for gender empowerment: Evidence from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan
title_short Role of technology as an enabler for gender empowerment: Evidence from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan
title_sort role of technology as an enabler for gender empowerment evidence from the khyber pakhtunkhwa province of pakistan
topic gender
agriculture
research
women's empowerment
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/137004
work_keys_str_mv AT begumkhadija roleoftechnologyasanenablerforgenderempowermentevidencefromthekhyberpakhtunkhwaprovinceofpakistan