Rural women: a path to hope
- Sinergias
- Jan 18, 2016
- 2 min read

The recent context of the country has focused on rural development and land distribution. It is known that the inequitable concentration of this resource in Colombia is one of the highest in the Latin American region. The Gini coefficient of land (which measures inequality in land tenure and ownership, where zero is equal and one is very unequal) is 0.85, a situation that has had a negative impact on farmers, affecting their social and economic structure.
This inequitable concentration of land, together with the Colombian armed conflict, has perpetuated poverty in the countryside, due to phenomena such as forced displacement, dispossession of property and informality. In this context, Colombian rural women have been one of the most vulnerable populations. Not only because of the rural debt owed to them by the Colombian State, but also because they belong to the female gender and are direct victims of violence.
This responds to the machismo that exists in the country. In general, they are not considered as key actors in the production of agricultural markets because they are women, and the domestic tasks to which they dedicate their time are not remunerated.
This situation challenges Colombian society and the State to rethink the way in which the roles of rural women in rural development are understood. Different studies have confirmed that there is a relationship between the empowerment of rural women and the general welfare of the family. In fact, when they have the land, they are the guarantors for their families to receive the minimum food requirements of their households.
It is essential to ensure the empowerment of peasant women in Colombian society. Only in this way will we be able to make the leap to rural development that we all yearn for and we will be able to have stable food security.
Reasons for hope:
According to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), women produce between 60 to 80 percent of the food in developing countries.
Although they are a key factor in agricultural production, they are limited to resources by gender, culture, law and economics. Inheritance, marriage and lack of knowledge of their rights hinder access to land ownership.
FAO studies have revealed that women spend almost all of what they earn from marketing agricultural and handicraft products on household needs. Men use at least 25 percent of their income for other purposes.
If inequalities in land tenure were resolved, global malnutrition would decrease by 17 percent.
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