For many the synergy between women’s equality and food security in developing states is obvious, due to women’s vital roles within communities, families and potential as a productive work force. Recently, Obama spoke in Nairobi stadium and implored Kenya’s political leaders and figureheads to empower their women citizens. He stated ‘we’re in a sports centre: imagine if you have a team and don’t let half of the team play. That’s stupid. That makes no sense’. However, despite the seemingly obvious, gender equality is not being prioritised in developing nations, as a fundamental means for improving food security.
Men’s stereotypical role as the ‘bread winner’ in developing nations, mean that it is the men who most commonly find work within the bigger cities and even migrate to an urban setting looking for employment. This leaves women at home baring the agricultural burdens, as a consequence women produce about 60–80 percent of the food in developing countries! Asia and Africa are the two regions that suffer most from malnutrition and starvation, within Asia it is estimated that women account for about 50 percent of agricultural output, whilst representing an impressive 80 percent of the agricultural labour force in parts of Africa. Overall, we can see how women have a vital role in ensuring food security worldwide and in particular Asia and Africa where improving food security is fundamental.
Women encounter many obstacles in these regions as a result of gender inequality. Predominately cultural norms and tradition dictates than men traditionally inherit the land, as well as controlling the homes finances. Consequently, women have less access to agricultural land, as well as difficulty obtaining technological and financial resources. It is predicted that despite producing 60-80 percent of food in developing nation’s women own less than 2 percent of the land. It can be assumed that if women had the same access as men to land and resources, there could be a huge spike in food production which would help to increase food security worldwide.
Currently, many of development policies and projects set up to assist small scale farmers in developing nations fail to incorporate gender equality into the equation, and instead side step women reducing their roles to a singular parental status. It can be argued that by investing in childcare programmes and giving women education in agriculture, will improve the amount of food women can produce. Overall, if policies and projects incorporated gender equality into their missions, there would be greater success in empowering small scale women farmers and subsequently food security in these regions could improve.
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