Cultural and economic barriers and opportunities for the participation of women in agricultural production systems: A case study in Guatemala
Agricultural activities in Guatemala constitute 32% of the total employment, but only one in every 10 individuals employed in these activities are women. This study examines cultural and economic barriers and opportunities for women’s participation in crop and livestock production systems. We used a...
| Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | Ponencia |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
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International Food Policy Research Institute
2023
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| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/137101 |
| _version_ | 1855528411242430464 |
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| author | Berrospi, Maria Lucia Hernandez, Manuel A. Alarcón, Constanza Lopera, Diana Carolina Quintero, Diana Reyes, Byron A. Olivet, Francisco |
| author_browse | Alarcón, Constanza Berrospi, Maria Lucia Hernandez, Manuel A. Lopera, Diana Carolina Olivet, Francisco Quintero, Diana Reyes, Byron A. |
| author_facet | Berrospi, Maria Lucia Hernandez, Manuel A. Alarcón, Constanza Lopera, Diana Carolina Quintero, Diana Reyes, Byron A. Olivet, Francisco |
| author_sort | Berrospi, Maria Lucia |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Agricultural activities in Guatemala constitute 32% of the total employment, but only one in every 10 individuals employed in these activities are women. This study examines cultural and economic barriers and opportunities for women’s participation in crop and livestock production systems. We used a qualitative approach involving focus groups with 15–20 women in eight communities in Chiquimula and Huehuetenango in 2022. The findings are consistent across locations. First, women seem not to be strongly interested in crop-production activities, except harvesting, and they only get involved in specific tasks. This lack of interest and participation can be related to low empowerment levels and traditional gender stereotypes, and persists even in locations with a high male emigration, where women could be expected to take over traditionally male croprelated tasks. Second, participants perform a variety of unpaid activities (e.g., raising small-scale livestock and maintaining home gardens), which they do not recognize as formal income-generating occupations. Third, women consider commercialization of their products a challenge as they lack access to markets beyond their communities. This also deters applicants from applying for credit due to fear of defaulting. The main aspirations of participants are to generate income from non-crop-related activities, mainly livestock oriented, or to emigrate for better prospects. This study underscores the need to help women not only start new activities, but also provide them with continuous support services in production and commercialization, management, accounting, and financial literacy, as well as building agency through existing women’s organizations and facilitating access to credit. |
| format | Ponencia |
| id | CGSpace137101 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publishDateRange | 2023 |
| publishDateSort | 2023 |
| publisher | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| publisherStr | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1371012025-11-06T06:32:59Z Cultural and economic barriers and opportunities for the participation of women in agricultural production systems: A case study in Guatemala Berrospi, Maria Lucia Hernandez, Manuel A. Alarcón, Constanza Lopera, Diana Carolina Quintero, Diana Reyes, Byron A. Olivet, Francisco gender agriculture research women's participation Agricultural activities in Guatemala constitute 32% of the total employment, but only one in every 10 individuals employed in these activities are women. This study examines cultural and economic barriers and opportunities for women’s participation in crop and livestock production systems. We used a qualitative approach involving focus groups with 15–20 women in eight communities in Chiquimula and Huehuetenango in 2022. The findings are consistent across locations. First, women seem not to be strongly interested in crop-production activities, except harvesting, and they only get involved in specific tasks. This lack of interest and participation can be related to low empowerment levels and traditional gender stereotypes, and persists even in locations with a high male emigration, where women could be expected to take over traditionally male croprelated tasks. Second, participants perform a variety of unpaid activities (e.g., raising small-scale livestock and maintaining home gardens), which they do not recognize as formal income-generating occupations. Third, women consider commercialization of their products a challenge as they lack access to markets beyond their communities. This also deters applicants from applying for credit due to fear of defaulting. The main aspirations of participants are to generate income from non-crop-related activities, mainly livestock oriented, or to emigrate for better prospects. This study underscores the need to help women not only start new activities, but also provide them with continuous support services in production and commercialization, management, accounting, and financial literacy, as well as building agency through existing women’s organizations and facilitating access to credit. 2023-10-10 2024-01-04T12:47:25Z 2024-01-04T12:47:25Z Presentation https://hdl.handle.net/10568/137101 en Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Berrospi, Maria Lucia; Hernandez, Manuel; Alarcon, Constanza; Lopera, Diana; Quintero, Diana; Reyes, Byron; Olivet, Francisco. 2023. Cultural and economic barriers and opportunities for the participation of women in agricultural production systems: A case study in Guatemala. Presentation. 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 Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/137101 |
| spellingShingle | gender agriculture research women's participation Berrospi, Maria Lucia Hernandez, Manuel A. Alarcón, Constanza Lopera, Diana Carolina Quintero, Diana Reyes, Byron A. Olivet, Francisco Cultural and economic barriers and opportunities for the participation of women in agricultural production systems: A case study in Guatemala |
| title | Cultural and economic barriers and opportunities for the participation of women in agricultural production systems: A case study in Guatemala |
| title_full | Cultural and economic barriers and opportunities for the participation of women in agricultural production systems: A case study in Guatemala |
| title_fullStr | Cultural and economic barriers and opportunities for the participation of women in agricultural production systems: A case study in Guatemala |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cultural and economic barriers and opportunities for the participation of women in agricultural production systems: A case study in Guatemala |
| title_short | Cultural and economic barriers and opportunities for the participation of women in agricultural production systems: A case study in Guatemala |
| title_sort | cultural and economic barriers and opportunities for the participation of women in agricultural production systems a case study in guatemala |
| topic | gender agriculture research women's participation |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/137101 |
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