Pathways for women’ empowerment in agriculture in South and Southeast Asia

The document argues that women's economic empowerment (WEE) strategies in South and Southeast Asian agriculture often fail to achieve gender equality because they ignore systemic patriarchal norms and power imbalances. It identifies four primary barriers: the perception of women as secondary labour, the gap between legal access and actual control over resources, the confinement of women to low-value stages of the agricultural value chain, and gender-blind policy implementation. The author contends that economic growth and market inclusion do not automatically lead to gender equality. To address this, the briefing recommends positioning social equality as central to projects, facilitating power negotiations, supporting collective action for women, and ensuring gender-responsive policy implementation across ministerial bodies.

• Women in South and Southeast Asian agriculture are frequently viewed as secondary labour, with their contributions undervalued despite performing heavy tasks. In Punjab Province, Pakistan, rice production relies heavily on women's unpaid or low-valued labour for tasks like weeding and seed transplanting, which are deemed too harsh for men.
• Legal rights to resources do not guarantee women's control over them due to patriarchal norms and illiteracy. In Cambodia, women may be unaware of joint land ownership or inheritance rights, and men often maintain exclusive control over land use, which can lead to the exploitation of women's cheap labour instead of investing in machinery.
• Women's economic roles are largely restricted to the lower, less lucrative ends of agricultural value chains. While women provide over half of Asia's agricultural labour, high-value roles like trading and export management are dominated by men; for example, only two out of 200 members of the Cambodian Rice Federation are women.
• Agricultural policies often ignore gender and power dynamics. In Vietnam, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development omitted gender from its Rural Development Strategy 2010-2020, delegating gender mainstreaming to the Women's Union, which lacks the authority and resources to influence the Ministry's strategies.
• Economic growth and inclusion in the labour market do not automatically result in gender equality or empowerment. Projects that focus solely on employing women in production lines to boost productivity often ignore the discriminatory practices and caregiving burdens women face.

APA

Nguyen, H., Mortensen, S., & Pravalprukskul, P. (2019). Pathways for women’ empowerment in agriculture in South and Southeast Asia. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/gender-and-agriculture-in-south-and-southeast-asia-sei-discussion-briefing.pdf

Chicago

Nguyen, Ha, Sofie Mortensen, and Pin Pravalprukskul. Pathways for women’ empowerment in agriculture in South and Southeast Asia. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2019. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/gender-and-agriculture-in-south-and-southeast-asia-sei-discussion-briefing.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Nguyen |first1=Ha |last2=Mortensen |first2=Sofie |last3=Pravalprukskul |first3=Pin |title=Pathways for women’ empowerment in agriculture in South and Southeast Asia |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=January 2019 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/gender-and-agriculture-in-south-and-southeast-asia-sei-discussion-briefing.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{nguyen2019pathways, author = {Nguyen, Ha and Mortensen, Sofie and Pravalprukskul, Pin}, title = {{Pathways for women’ empowerment in agriculture in South and Southeast Asia}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2019}, month = jan, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/gender-and-agriculture-in-south-and-southeast-asia-sei-discussion-briefing.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }