Title_ Changes in Women’s Operation of Agricultural Units in Peru: 

              Economic Advance or Impoverishment of Female Farmers?

Author_ Eduardo Zegarra

Pages 60-69

Abstract_ Figures from the last two agricultural censuses in Peru indicate significant changes in the presence of women conducting agricultural units. Altogether, women went from controlling 20% in 1994 to 31% of total agricultural units in 2012. In the conventional discourse, this is mostly assumed to be clear evidence for the “economic advance for women”, linked mainly to the increased access to agricultural land. This trend, however, can also be associated with a process of impoverishment, especially if women control increasingly smaller and low productivity agricultural units, and face unsurmountable barriers for better education, financing of high value crops and cattle, formal titling and other key services. In this paper we use a panel of districts from these two censuses to disentangle the occurrence of both processes in the asset and market access dimensions. We find evidence of very different processes occurring for women with and without male partners. We conclude that more control of agricultural units by women does not necessarily imply greater economic progress, especially if there are not specific policies in place to offset gender biases in the access to key agricultural assets, rural institutions and markets.

Keywords_ Agricultural feminization, Gender analysis, Women economic advance, Rural Impoverishment, Peru