Assets and productive resources are not the only resources women find themselves marginalised from receiving. Due to restrictions on their mobility and assumptions that the males as household heads are the best person to talk to in the family, women miss out on receiving information and technology.
Case Study 3: Agricultural Extension in Malawi
In Malawi, women were denied the opportunity to receive agricultural training due to social norms that degrade them as being unintelligent and therefore unable to understand information, lack confidence, are uninterested and lazy. The quote below shows that men were preferred as recipients for training for sweet potato cultivation by extension officers, even though women do all the cultivation on the land.
Research that aims to understand the limits women face in developing their skills will make valuable recommendations to policy on how to increase agricultural production and livelihoods. For example, allowing women to participate in the sweet potato training mentioned above, will increase the agricultural skill base which will have a direct impact on productivity. (Source: Mudege et. al 2017)
“If the husband is available, then the woman cannot come for training because we only train one person. However, when we talk of participation in every activity, usually women dominate participation by providing labour.”
“People really tried to teach them. If there could be a programme where they visit women in the fields maybe they can understand. I don’t think there can be any result from just teaching them in class and then leaving them. A follow up in the fields may help, like with me the extension officers visit me frequently.”
“I have been attending all the other training … but it was my wife who attended the nutrition training. They were taught that this crop could also be used to make cakes …… We saw that this has to do with cooking. Cooking is a woman’s job, so it is better if she attends. When she is trained, we can eat the cakes as well.”
(Source: Mudege et. al 2017)
Sometimes, the gendered division of labour dictates who attends training for specific activities. While women were offered the opportunity to participate in the training, it served only to reinforce local gendered norms of women being responsible for household chores. In other cases, when women get the chance to participate in training, low levels of literacy and education make it difficult for them to learn technical material.
If you were conducting research on the implementation and outcomes of this extension service, you would have identified that men receive more support than women, as extension officers make regular visits to them. This bias is undermining the efficacy of the training program. An important finding would be that delivery of extension material should be tailored to the capacities of the audience such as women to maximise uptake of information. Your research should also be directed specifically at the women who participated in the training, to understand the problems they face and what their preferences are for receiving information in the future.
Due to difficulties in accessing training and extension, women often receive information from their social networks. Informal networks of friends and family can be important resources for women when learning information and new technologies. Research should aim to understand how social networks can be utilised productively. For example, in Botswana, women learnt new skills for taking care of their chickens from other poultry farmers. (Source: Hovorka, 2006)
“My fellow poultry producers, they have trained me. Now I feel confident with my skills.”
(Source: Hovorka, 2006)
Watch this video about a female farmer’s experience participating in agricultural training in Myanmar. As you can see, giving women the opportunity to learn new skills can lead to increases in income as well as self-confidence, which the woman in the video wants to share with other women in her community.