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This Stockholm Environment Institute briefing examines the barriers to gender equality in the agricultural sectors of South and Southeast Asia. It argues that Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE) strategies, which focus on market access and productivity, often fail to achieve true gender equality because they ignore systemic patriarchal norms and power imbalances. The document provides evidence from rice value chains and home gardening projects in Cambodia, Pakistan, and Vietnam to illustrate how women remain marginalized as secondary labor with limited control over resources, and recommends a shift toward transformative approaches that address the root cultural and political causes of inequality.