International Day of Rural Women

The International Day of Rural Women is marked on October 15 every year to recognize the crucial role that rural women, including Indigenous women, play in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security, and eradicating rural poverty. [1]

On average, women make up more than 40 percent of the agricultural workforce in developing countries, ranging from 20 percent in Latin America to 50 percent or more in parts of Africa and Asia. Yet, they face significant discrimination when it comes to land and livestock ownership, equal pay, participation in decision-making entities, and access to resources, credit, and the market for their farms to thrive. [2]

The importance of the role of rural women

Gender equality and the empowerment of rural women are inextricably linked to the strengthening of food systems to fight hunger and malnutrition, and to real gains for the population and rural lives and livelihoods at large.

Rural women are a significant, vital, and remarkable proportion of humankind. As farmers, farm workers, horticulturists, market sellers, businesswomen, entrepreneurs, and community leaders, they make up over a quarter of the world’s population.

There is a wide range of evidence that as much as half of the reduction in hunger recorded between 1970 and 1995 is due to improvements in women’s societal status. Progress in women’s access to education alone has improved food security by 43 percent- as significant as the gains from increased food availability (26 percent) and health advances (19 percent) combined.
It has been observed that women spend a larger share of the additional income that they may have than men on food, health, clothing, and education for their children.

Thus, Enabling and empowering rural women translates into improved overall well-being for children, families, and communities. This, in turn, contributes to the building of human capital for future generations and to long-term social and economic growth. As a result, the empowerment of rural women and girls is not only critical for agricultural development, it is crucial to social and economic progress and sustainable development in general. [3]

Problems facing Rural Women

The main problem facing women in general, and rural women in particular, is inequality with men. Women farmers may be as productive and enterprising as their male counterparts, but they have less access to land, credit, agricultural inputs, markets, and high-value agrifood chains. In addition, they obtain lower prices for their crops.

Women and girls in rural areas lack equal access to productive resources and assets, public services such as education, health care, and infrastructure (including safe water and sanitation services), while much of their labour remains invisible and unpaid, even as their workloads become increasingly heavy due to the out-migration of men.

At the global level, with few exceptions, every gender and development indicator for which data are available reveals that rural women suffer more than men in rural areas. As well as experiencing poverty, exclusion, and the impact of the effects of climate change. [2]

By many customs, women are the last to eat. At least, within the home, where they are also responsible for the largest share of caregiving and unpaid domestic work. [4] In addition to early marriage, and the objectification of women without considering them as human beings with full rights and full capacity to make decisions.

Solutions

The key solution is to fully achieve equality between women and men.
Providing educational opportunities.
Providing basic health services.
Support women’s right to access leadership positions and make decisions.
Providing modern agricultural means to help working women.

The previous solutions ensure the progress and development of the entire society, as well as ensuring significant progress in the field of food security and climate change.

Syrian rural women

Women in Syria make up 65% of the total economically active population in agriculture, according to statistics from world organizations in 2004.

Through the“ telefood campaign”, FAO supported 13 projects in the Syrian Arab Republic, mainly focusing on poultry farming and beekeeping, home gardening, and the development of small family enterprises to grow edible mushrooms.

The database ”Dimitra” includes 10 organizations in the Syrian Arab Republic working on 16 projects beneficial for rural women. These projects vary in scope and cover a wide range of issues ranging from literacy to vocational training and microcredit programs. [5]

Women constitute a significant human force that is being unfairly used, or often neglected, which leads us in our initiative to support them and demand equality in all areas in order to make the best use of these forces, in order to achieve justice and safety for women, to get rid of the inferior view of women and to give them complete freedom, which are the rights of any human being.