Involvement of rural women in aquaculture: an innovative approach

Although women have proved to be competent in adopting new aquaculture technologies, their role is very much restricted and often ignored. One of the major reasons is the location of aquaculture sites and several sociocultural taboos against women who strive to earn for their family’s subsistence in rural areas. There is a gender bias in many aquaculture activities. To ensure that women utilize their full potential in profitable activities like aquaculture, it is necessary to provide capacity building support to rural women, which will eventually lead to their empowerment. In countries like India, the technology provided to women must take into account cultural aspects. One such project - backyard ornamental fish breeding and management - has been found to offer immense scope for improving the livelihood of rural women. This paper gives some practical tips for dissemination of technology in the rural sector, particularly to rural women

Barriers to rural women's involvement in economic activities : evidence from Shaanxi, China : a dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Economics at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

With China’s fast development in urbanization and agricultural modernization, rural women are one of the most affected yet ignored groups in society. However, strong evidence has shown that women’s active economic participation can not only reduce the likelihood of household poverty, but also improve distributional dynamics within a household. With first-hand data collected from three areas in one province, this research studies rural women’s barriers to economic participation in farming and off-farm employment under the government’s policy of land transfer. It is found that rural women are facing different challenges and have diversified needs and aspirations. There is a mismatch between the training local government offered and what rural women really want. The study of women professional farmers aims at building an updated understanding of rural women within the fast pace of China’s modernization. This research covers some of the critical factors of economic growth, such as the role of geography, gender, history and institutions. The findings provide information to policy makers, researchers and social organizations concerned with the future of rural women, and assist the sustainable implementation of the land transfer policy and gender equality

Cognitive change in women's empowerment in rural Bangladesh

Rural women in Bangladesh have limited access to resources and public spheres due to socio-cultural restrictions. Women suffer from severe discrimination, due partly to a lack of access to information. Information and communication and technologies (ICT) are tools that potentially can reach rural women and address their knowledge and information needs. Considering this scenario, the aim of this paper is to examine the situation of rural women using ICT tools provided by non-government and government organizations, and investigate whether access to ICT has changed their lives in terms of socio-economic development. Using a structured questionnaire, data was collected from women in villages where two different ICT projects have been introduced. The change in women's awareness, skills and knowledge of the wider environment on various issues (including health, education, legal rights) is described. These cognitive changes were compared in women with ICT intervention and women who did not use ICT. The overall cognitive awareness of the women indicates more changes among women with ICT intervention than without. Therefore, ICT intervention in rural villages in Bangladesh is leading to empowerment

Rural Women Striding Forward

Global Fund for Women believes the empowerment of rural women, a continued focus on food security, and access to resources are women's rights issues; all three are needed to address critical gaps in human rights and development processes. To this end, Global Fund launched a 2.5 year grant making and learning initiative in June 2011 to support 22 rural women's groups working on sustainable agriculture and the promotion of women's rights in Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Uganda. Our research framework addressed critical questions regarding constraints facing women farmers, and their preferred strategies for enhanced agricultural performance and advocacy for their human rights. We expected the learnings would provide strategic direction for grantees' work, Global Fund programs and the funding practices of other donor and development actors. This summary shares key findings from the 2013 evaluation of the initiative

Trends in Non-Farm Self-Employment Activity for Rural Women 1981-2001

The importance of non-farm self-employment activity as a source of employment and income in Canada's rural and small town (RST) labour market is increasing. This paper provides an overview of major trends in non-farm self-employment activity for rural women, compared to urban women and rural men. In 2001, 14 percent of female workers in the RST labour market were engaged in nonfarm self-employment activity, compared to 9 percent in 1981. Women in RST areas were more likely to have some non-farm self-employment activity, compared to women in larger urban centres (LUC). In each rural / urban group, women, ages 50 to 64, were more likely to report some non-farm self-employment activity than younger women. Women's non-farm self-employment activity rates are lower than men's in each rural / urban group nationally. However, the gap between women's and men's rates is decreasing. Women in RST areas are less likely to earn $20,000 or more from (unincorporated) nonfarm self-employment activity, compared to women in LUC areas. Regardless of type of geographic area, women with (unincorporated) non-farm self-employment income are less likely than men to earn$20,000 or more from this source.Labor and Human Capital,

The Role of ICT in Women's Empowerment in Rural\ud Bangladesh

Rural women in Bangladesh have limited access to resources and public\ud spheres due to socio-cultural restrictions. Women suffer from severe\ud discrimination, and it is thought this is heightened due to a lack of access to\ud information. Information communication and technology (ICT) is a potential tool\ud that can reach rural women and enrich their knowledge. This paper discusses\ud women‟s empowerment in terms of perceptual change in rural villages in\ud Bangladesh after ICT intervention has been introduced by Non-Government\ud Organizations (NGOs). Since empowerment is a complex phenomenon to measure\ud because of its multidimensional aspects and its relationship with time as a process,\ud the methodology used in this research was an integration of qualitative and\ud quantitative methods. Using a structured questionnaire, data was collected from\ud women in two different villages where ICT projects have been introduced. The\ud change in women‟s perception after using ICT was compared with changes in\ud women who did not use ICT. The results indicate that ICT intervention changed\ud women‟s perception in a positive direction in one village but it did not change in\ud the other village

Chronic Disease Self-Management Challenges among Rural Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Prakasam, Andhra Pradesh, India: A Qualitative Study.

Rural women living with HIV/AIDS (WLHA) in India experience challenges self-managing HIV/AIDS in their rural communities. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore factors influencing their care and antiretroviral treatment (ART) adherence. Themes that emerged from the qualitative focus groups among WLHA (N = 24) in rural Prakasam, Andhra Pradesh, India, included: (1) coming to know about HIV and other health conditions, (2) experiences being on ART, (3) challenges maintaining a nutritious diet, (4) factors affecting health care access and quality, and (5) seeking support for a better future. Chronic disease self-management in rural locales is challenging, given the number of barriers which rural women experience on a daily basis. These findings suggest a need for individual- and structural-level supports that will aid in assisting rural WLHA to self-manage HIV/AIDS as a chronic illness

Women’s Autonomy in the Context of Rural Pakistan

The paper explores the elements that constitute women’s autonomy in rural Pakistan. Hitherto most research on women’s status in Pakistan has either been restricted to proxy measures of women’s status generally or to the urban areas. Community or region, each of which has distinctive features, have an overriding influence on this subject. Northern Punjabi women have lower economic autonomy but greater mobility and decision-making authority than women in Southern Punjab. Gender systems at the village level are also important predictors of women’s autonomy. Economic class has a weak and ambivalent influence on women’s autonomy in rural Punjab. Class influences both education and employment of women, these remains the routes to empowerment in rural settings. While most women in rural areas contribute economically, the majority works on the household farm or within the household economic unit. These women do not derive any additional autonomy as a result of this contribution. Paid employment, though offset by other restrictions on poor women, offers greater potential for women’s autonomy. Education, on the other hand, has a lesser influence on female autonomy in the rural Punjabi context.

Economic Reform and Changing Patterns of Labor Force Participation in Urban and Rural China

In this project, we employ data from the Chinese population censuses of 1982, 1990, and 2000 to examine reform-era changes in the patterns of male and female labor force participation and in the distribution of men’s and women’s occupational attainment. Very marked patterns of change in labor force participation emerge when we disaggregate the data by age cohort, marital status, sex, and rural/urban location. Women have decreased their labor force participation more than men, and urban women much more than rural women. Single young people in urban areas have decreased their labor force participation to stay in school to a much greater extent than single young people in rural areas. The urban elderly have decreased their rates of labor force participation while the rural elderly have increased theirs. We also find evidence of the feminization of agriculture.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40173/3/wp787.pd

Divorced, separated and widowed female workers in rural Mozambique

Compared to other rural women, a high proportion of female wageworkers in rural Mozambique are divorced, separated or widowed. The paper explores the factors underlying this difference and establishes a significant relationship between labor market participation and female divorce or widowhood. The association is likely to work in both directions. Moreover, contrastive exploration suggests that divorced/separated women differ from non-divorced women in many other important respects: They tend to get access to better jobs; also, divorced and separated mothers are remarkably good at investing in their daughters’ education compared to other mothers and to male respondents. The paper concludes by stressing the limits of regression techniques in teasing out causation and the interactions between variables, and by suggesting that policies to increase female access to decently remunerated wage employment could make a substantial difference to the welfare of very poor rural women in Africa and their children